​ What will farms be like in 2050?

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By 2050, planet Earth will reach 9,1 billion inhabitants. According to a report da Food and Agriculture, an entity linked to the United Nations, to meet this strong population growth, global food production will have to increase by 70% compared to 2007 levels. There is no other way out: to improve productivity, farms will have to become increasingly more efficient. In other words, they will have to be more digital. 

Since its beginnings, agriculture has always had an intimate relationship with technology. It is estimated that our ability to cultivate began in the Neolithic period, when hunter-gatherer people observed that some grains, when buried, gave rise to new plants. These groups settled on the land and had more time to observe nature and think about ways to produce and consume food using new techniques and tools. 

Today, more than 10 thousand years later, we see a series of capabilities that are integrating to improve agricultural processes - from autonomous robots that select and harvest fruit to underground farms, from Artificial Intelligence (AI) to satellite crop monitoring.  

For Simon Blackmore, head of robotic agriculture at Harper Adams University in England, We will see a real disruption in agricultural production in the coming years. The farm of the future will be (and is already becoming) fully automated, with sensors measuring all types of data needed to run a plantation and manage natural resources. 

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Artificial Intelligence will have a strong presence on the farm of the future. Dairy farmers are already using robotic milk jugs, and farm equipment manufacturers are testing prototype tractors and sprayers to handle field work without human drivers. The leap from prototype to commercial operation tends to be short. A good number of new machines are already arriving on the market equipped with electronics to control operations with very little human interaction.

With regulations already in force, technology drones It is ready for a boom in agricultural use as well. Over the next 10 years, according to a report from Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research, this industry is expected to generate 100 jobs in the United States and generate a turnover of US$82 billion. 

We currently have technologies that allow us to create solutions completely online and capable of measuring the productivity of agricultural areas of any size in just one click. A calculation that is made based on satellite images with thermal bands to map crops benefits not only the farmer, but also the entire financial system - banks, rural credit companies, insurance companies and other ecosystem agents, who now have access to data essential for analyzing the farmer’s profile. 

Another technology expected to become common is crop gene editing, allowing scientists to precisely edit genes in DNA with the goal of creating a better variety of crops. In the future, the practice should enable farmers to select specific crop types that have characteristics such as resistance to different diseases, drought tolerance or the most desirable oil content. 

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Water availability, environmental impacts and soil health are elements that will continue to challenge producers in the future. But new technologies will help them deal with these issues more efficiently. There are monitoring systems using sensors and satellites that can estimate the productivity, forecast and harvest history of any agricultural area in the world, helping to make decisions in the most different sectors and sizing plant growth, humidity and soil composition, among other information. 

Among the advantages of this type of technology, we can mention less use of chemical products and less environmental impact, two fundamental elements for the sustainability of the planet, a topic that will be increasingly on the agenda in the coming years. 

Indoor farming is also another phenomenon that has become popular in recent years, allowing large quantities of fresh vegetables and produce to be produced in urban environments with minimal space and much smaller amounts of water than on a traditional farm. 

It takes up to 34 gallons of water to produce one head of lettuce, but a Swedish company With a strong presence in agronomy technology, it uses around 0,25 liters for the equivalent weight of crops. This is a new concept of "agricultural production", which combines agriculture, technology and architecture so that the process of growing food is more integrated into people's lives in cities. 

Urban farms can be as simple as traditional small outdoor community gardens, or as complex as indoor vertical farms, in which farmers think about increasing space in three-dimensional terms. These complex, futuristic farms can be configured in a variety of ways, but most of them contain rows of shelves lined with plants rooted in soil, nutrient-enriched water, or simply air. Each layer is equipped with UV lighting to mimic the effects of the sun. Unlike the unpredictable weather outdoors, growing indoors allows farmers to adapt conditions to maximize growth.

If the past is a clue to the future, in the case of agriculture, producers will continue to look for innovative ways to guarantee our survival. And Brazil, with its undeniable agricultural vocation, should lead the new agritech trends, do you agree?