New farming tech is leading the fight against global food insecurity

Farmers are embracing technology to become more efficient and using equipment worth millions of dollars in the drive to reduce food insecurity. Higher yields with fewer resources. That’s the challenge that farmers around the world are trying to solve. According to data from the United Nations, global food insecurity has reached 29 percent, which means more than one billion people are facing the issue.

Considering that the world’s population is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050, there will be a huge increase in demand for food. At the same time, the shortage of agricultural production is affecting food chains.

Farmers and ranchers report that they’re struggling to find people willing to harvest and process the food that’s produced, even if the search is extended outside their borders.

In 2021, the UK National Farmers’ Union (NFU) wrote to then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson requesting the launch of a COVID-19 Recovery Visa to alleviate the shortage of labor throughout the supply chain.

In the United States, with a declining rural population and increasing opportunities outside the farm, many farmers have turned to bringing in labor from other countries through the H-2A agricultural visa program.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 37.6 percent of the Earth’s land is dedicated to agriculture, and in countries such as Mexico, most of the use of water is in this sector (77 percent according to the Mexican national water authority, Conagua).

Sustainable use of land resources is crucial to mitigating climate change and biodiversity loss. Thanks to new technologies, farmers can contribute to making their food supply chain more sustainable by reducing their carbon emissions.

The use of drones, autonomous tractors and agricultural robots are some of the innovations that could be key to the future food supply.

“Until recently, agriculture has always been about doing more with more – more horses, more inputs, more hectares – but the digital age is changing all that. In the last decade, it has been about doing more with less and providing farmers with tools to make informed decisions,” said Jahmy Hindman, Chief Technology Officer of John Deere, the world’s largest manufacturer of agricultural machinery, speaking at the launch of its first 100 percent autonomous tractor in Las Vegas.

“Until recently, agriculture has always been about doing more with more – more horses, more inputs, more hectares – but the digital age is changing all that.” – Jahmy Hindman

Driverless tractors aim to free farmers from 8–12 hours of driving by controlling the tractor through an app on their phone or comput- er. The farmer can use the app to place the tractor where it needs to be, drive along a field, turn around, come back, as well as maneuver it to navigate obstacles.

The company has not said how much these tractors will cost or when would they be available in the retail market, other than orders will open soon. They made their debut in early 2022, and are currently being tested on farms in the United States using 8R tractors.

Those in this series have from 230 to 410 horsepower and, without the autonomous technology, retail for US$272,000 to US$427,000, a comparable price point to that of a Ferrari, but with considerably less horsepower.

Farmers are also using drones to help increase production and control crop growth for maximum yield. With this technology, farmers can remotely extract soil samples and check temperature, humidity and altitude, as well as spray pesticides.