Hola MaHigh-School - January 2020

Although the probes guarantee accuracy and reliability
and are temperature-compensated - and aren’t affected
by salinity, data is downloaded and processed by
DFM Probe Schedule Software.
It sounds simple, but agricultural AI is immensely difficult
from an IT perspective. ‘soil’ is not just soil. Micro-climate
(localised winds within one square meter)
can disrupt growth, etc. All of it increases the number
of parameters incrementally. On top of, how to put ‘human
knowledge and gut feel’ into an algorithm?
However, robotic technologies and AI will enable more
reliable monitoring and management of natural resources,
such as air and water quality. It also gives ‘producers’
greater control over plant and animal production,
processing, distribution, and storage, which results
in better efficiency of the farm.
But without the farmers understanding and being able
to use the robotic technologies, they are not able to
achieve what they want. Farmers must be highly skilled
in using IT and AI in the future.
For this reason, I believe that a branch that will look
into the relationship between human capital and technology
in agriculture will be a necessity and the only
way to increase agricultural output to the levels required
to feed us all.
Masiziba Hadebe
Facts
Agricultural production tripled
between 1960 and 2015 as the
world’s population grew from 3
billion people to 7 billion
The world will need to produce
50 percent more food by 2050