New technologies have been revolutionizing many sectors of activity for several years. Agriculture can also benefit from smart farming! Better productivity, more efficient crop monitoring thanks to sensors, easier management, reduced costs: these are just some of the benefits of smart farming that can be enjoyed by farmers. With the predicted population growth, the field-to-plate circuit will become an essential issue for more and more people on the planet. Anticipate these phenomena by taking an interest in smart farming now.
Overview of the agricultural situation in France in a few figures
The latest agricultural census from the Ministry of Agriculture shows that there are 389,000 farms in France, with a total farmed area of 26.7 million hectares, or nearly 50% of the territory of Metropolitan France! On average, a farm consists of an area of 69 hectares.
As for farmers, it should be noted that 789,000 people have a permanent job on a farm and that almost 58% of farmers or co-operators are over 50 years old.
French farmers are already adept at connected agriculture: 70% of them say they use business applications, But most of the time, these are reduced to consulting the weather forecast or dealing with administrative formalities, whereas with smart farming it’s possible to implement real precision farming.
What are the economic stakes of smart farming?
With smart farming, a farmer can implement more efficient systems in a variety of areas, allowing him to lower its costs by producing more and better. A fruit or grain farmer, for example, will be able to make a more detailed analysis of the use of pesticides and fertilizers on his farm.
Soil irrigation can also be optimized using data from sensors installed in the fields. Thus, with the savings, each farmer will be able to make new investments, in a kind of virtuous circle.
Intelligent agriculture as a solution to feed a growing world population
French cereal production is one of the most efficient in the world, but in order to anticipate the coming demographic shock, it is necessary to set up a evolution of farms integrating benefits of innovation. By proceeding with the agricultural transition with smart farmingit is possible to supply productions in larger quantities.
Thanks to the robots, the fertilizer is dosed to its finest value and allows the maximum preservation of the nutrients of the cultivated cereals or fruits and vegetables. Satellite guidance, control by sensors and drones, and modeling are all technologies at the service of agriculture, thanks to smart farming.