Precision Farmers Make More Money, So Why Is Adoption So Slow?

By AGDAILY

According to a McKinsey & Company report, if our world continues to develop the way it does, our crop demand will at least double by 2050. As a result, there is a constantly growing pressure on food producers, and the shift toward precision farming techniques is becoming vital due to the ever-changing circumstances, writes Alexandr Sakal of EOS Crop Monitoring in AGDAILY.

The U.S. has been one of the first countries to start using such techniques back in 1998. Soil and crop monitoring, variable-rate input applications, and tractor guidance systems have been getting more and more widespread since then. There is evidence that these tools were adopted on 45 percent to 55 percent of land in 2010-2013.

Grand View Research Inc. predicts that the entire precision farming sector will reach $10.23 billion by 2025. Meanwhile, the compound annual growth rate will grow by 14.2 percent during the same time period. However, this major opportunity comes with its own set of challenges. Let’s explore the key barriers in implementing ag tech tools and techniques today.

National Geographic has found that when farmers in the U.S. started implementing precision agricultural practices, their gross annual benefit went up. To be precise, small farms (800 acres) earned $11,000 more; medium-sized farms (1,600 acres), $26,000; and large farms (2,400 acres), $39,000. Numbers speak louder than words, don’t they?