As our changing climate and growing population make it harder for farmers to produce enough to feed the world, technology can help close the gap between food demand and supply.

A Jan. 14 open letter from more than 150 Nobel and World Food Prize laureates describes the challenge and its solution.

“Food production and accessibility must rise sharply and sustainably by mid-century, particularly where hunger and malnutrition are most severe,” says the letter. “We must be prepared to pursue high risk, high reward, scientific research with the goal of transforming our food systems.”

A look at recent technological trends shows some key areas where new developments are helping improve agricultural productivity.

AI advances:

AI-powered regenerative farming: Regenerative agriculture involves approaches to farming that improve soil health, biodiversity and sustainable crop production. Regenerative farming practices can include crop rotation, reduced or no tillage, or variable rate spraying or fertilization. AI can assist in regenerative farming practices in several ways, says Ron Baruchi, CEO of Agmatix. In 2025, he predicts, more farmers will be using AI to:

• empower farmers to make individual decisions about regenerative farm practices that work best for their given situation and needs;
• analyze huge datasets and discover potential courses of action that optimize productivity and sustainability;
• enable faster innovation for regenerative agriculture, including by accelerating trials of new products, like biosolutions, and optimizing precision crop nutrition.

Digital twins: AI can also be used to create predictive models called, digital twins. A digital twin is a virtual replica of a real-life object. When you do something to a digital twin it behaves the way the real object would, which has spurred the use of these models in medicine and manufacturing. Farmers can use digital twins to model interventions such as increasing or decreasing inputs, like fertilizer, pesticide, or water.

“Farmers can manage operations remotely based on (near) real-time digital information instead of having to rely on direct observation and manual tasks on-site,” according to a team of scientists from the Netherlands. “This allows them to act immediately in case of (expected) deviations and to simulate effects of interventions based on real-life data.”

Organic crop development

Shifting away from chemicals and growing organic can open up new markets. While it may not seem intuitive, technology can assist with organic farming.

Consumer preference for organic produce is a growing trend, according Brad Liggett, the President of Nationwide Agribusiness.

“A survey conducted by Statista indicated that more than 40% of U.S. consumers are willing to pay a premium for grocery items that are sustainably sourced,” Liggett writes. “As demand grows, more farmers are leaning into practices like conservation tillage and variable-rate fertilizer application.”

New technologies can help with the challenges of growing organic produce, including allowing for more sustainable pest and weed control, controlling livestock costs, and water availability, according to Morning AgClips:

• Anti-pest tech includes laser scarecrows that use motion detectors and flash a special green laser that humans cannot see during the daytime, but birds can, to startle crows. It’s been proven effective according to studies.
• Lasers also fight weeds. Guided by AI algorithms, high-tech mechanical weed control equipment can prevent the need for chemical weedkillers by using lasers to burn weeds while leaving other plants intact.
• Livestock technology includes automated feeder, milking, and manure removal systems, as well as acoustic pulse technology to treat bovine mastitis without antibiotics.
• Irrigation can be improved with tech-driven drip systems that use heat, moisture and other sensors to determine precise amounts of water needed.

Biotechnology advances

Biotechnology is enabling more productive, climate resilient agriculture while battling waste, through the use of genetic engineering. CRISPR Cas9 and other genetic technologies are helping make corn, rice, and potato crops more productive.

Biotech advances in livestock farming include gene editing to help develop birds resistant to avian flu and pigs resistant to deadly diseases. Cattle developed through gene editing to have shorter hair and greater heat tolerance can better withstand the challenges of climate change.

Biotech can also reduce waste by giving crops a longer shelf life, using gene editing to produce potatoes that are less likely to bruise and a strawberry with a greatly extended shelf life of 15-20 days.

Biofuels

The use of biofeedstocks, including agricultural waste and designated crops, to produce sustainable, low-carbon fuels is not only providing more climate friendly energy, it is also providing a new source of income for farmers.

“More than 75% of biomass energy will be produced from agriculture biomass,” according to Muhammed Saleem of the Jubail University College Civil Engineering Department. “It is reported that the biomass based energy option will share more than 50% of the net energy demand in most of the developed countries by the year 2050.”

One specific biofuel with exceptional promise is sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which is made from ethanol that is usually produced from corn. SAF can be dropped into existing airliners instead of the usual kerosene-based jet fuel, to reduce carbon emissions from flying by as much as 70%, but the challenge to achieving widespread use is to reach large-scale production.

Drone on the range

Drones can help farmers track crop growth and identify nutrient deficiencies in a faster, more effective manner, which is especially important for row crop farmers, who typically oversee thousands of acres of land, according to Morning AgClips.

A study by the ICAR-National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management in India, notes that drones flying over farmers’ fields can be used for:

• Soil analysis for field planning.
• Seed pod planting.
• Crop spraying using drones containing reservoirs.
• Monitoring the need for irrigation using moisture sensors.
• Crop health assessments using light sensors to detect health status and stress levels.
• Controlling weeds, pests, and diseases.
• Tree/crop biomass estimation using measures of crop/tree canopy density and distance from ground surface.
• Scaring birds away from crops.

According to the letter from the Nobel and World Food Prize laureates, “agricultural R&D has long been essential to increasing food production.” The current advances in agriculture technology indicate that some of that R&D is already paying off.