The modern world as we know it has been made possible in many ways by the agricultural revolution. Technological progress has multiplied the productivity of labor in this sector, and now a rather small percentage of people employed in agriculture are able to feed the entire population of the planet. However, progress does not stop and new ways are being found to increase the efficiency of the industry. One of the most relevant technologies of our time is precision farming, it is a crop productivity management system based on the use of a complex of satellite and information technologies. Instead of plowing, sowing, applying fertilizers in a single dose to all areas of our huge fields without taking into account the fertility indicators of each specific arable area, as was done in the previous history of agriculture, today farmers can accurately calculate the amount, fertilizer and other resources for any part of the field with an accuracy of one meter.
Agritech
Agritech is a set of high-tech methods aimed at increasing yields, product quality and economic efficiency of production, taking into account environmental safety requirements. The dynamic of progress in agribusiness allows us to state that in the first half of the 21st century, precise agrotechnology will become the absolute norm on all continents for the simple reason that it allows to increase the efficiency of land use. Technology replaces each other, engines consume less gasoline, shares rise and fall in price. Only the growth of the planet’s population is constant and increasing consumption is reducing the amount of land suitable for agriculture.
Modern agricultural technologies are complexes of technological operations for the management of agricultural crop production processes in agrocenoses in order to obtain the planned yield and product quality while ensuring environmental safety and a certain economic efficiency. The main task of agricultural technology design is the integrated expression of the agro-ecological requirements of a variety through the main links and elements of agricultural systems.
Evolutions
A qualitative leap in the intensification of agricultural technologies occurred in the 1970s following the technological revolution in Western Europe, which entailed the creation of intensive varieties of a new type (green revolution) and the development of a management system of production process for micro-periods of organogenesis (agrochemical revolution).
Agrotechnologies are linked in a single management system of the agricultural landscape through crop rotation, soil cultivation, fertilization and plant protection systems, i.e. they are an integral part of adaptive landscape agriculture systems. At the same time, they have an individual value, determined mainly by the characteristics of the variety, since each type of variety (by destination, intensity and other parameters) corresponds to a certain control system of the production process and a structural model of the agrocenosis.
The methodology for the formation of agricultural technologies consists in constantly overcoming the factors that limit the yield of crops and the quality of the product. Their number depends on the complexity of the ecological situation and the level of the planned yield. This largely determines the content of agricultural technologies and, consequently, of technological maps.
Main advantages of the agritech paradigm:
The implementation of the agritech solution allows you to establish planning, control and accounting processes at the enterprise, obtain the planned profit at the planned costs, control this ratio on a scale of up to 1 hectare in each field, as well as create an effective communication environment for employees.
Let’s see the advantages:
1. Save resources (fuel, fertilizers, labor costs, time, reduced depreciation costs)
2. Increase the profitability of agriculture
3. Conservation and restoration of the fertile soil layer (improvement of its chemical, physical and biological qualities, increase of the organic matter content in the soil)
4. Reduce or eliminate soil erosion (it is not necessary to spend additional funds to solve this problem)
5. Ecological management of weeds
6. Accumulation and retention of moisture in the soil
7. Reduce the dependence of the crop on weather conditions
8. Increase in yields
9. Improvement of grain quality (ecological product)
10. Creation of a special culture of interaction with the environment
Geographic information needed
One of the ways to eliminate the negative influence of field diversity on soil fertility is the use of a geographic information system, which allows you to process a large amount of information about terrestrial factors of plant life and, based on their analysis , to develop technologies for the cultivation of herbaceous crops, taking into account the state of soil fertility not only of each specific field, but also of the elementary areas that make up this field matrix. That is, some elementary areas are very well supplied with nutrients, others are worse. Therefore, on those elementary areas that have a very high degree of supply, it is possible not to apply mineral fertilizers. Those with an insufficient level of security require fertilization. Consequently, an economy of mineral fertilizers is created, the costs of purchase and application are reduced and, in general, the cost of production is reduced.
The more intense the agricultural technology, the more natural factors are taken into account. First of all, the pedoclimatic conditions are taken into account, as atmospheric stresses (drought, water stagnation, frost, etc.) cause the greatest damage to the crop, devaluing costs. Under these conditions, the most promising for intensive agricultural technologies is the forest-steppe zone, the irrigated lands of the steppe zone. Their use is mandatory for hydrotechnical remediation, otherwise the total costs will not be repaid.
The choice of technologies and their content strongly depend on the terrain. In complex erosive landscapes, the availability of moisture decreases due to increased surface runoff, erosion processes develop, especially along tram lines, which complicates the use of intensive agricultural technologies due to the cost of anti-erosion measures.
The hydrogeological regime has a significant impact on land productivity and, consequently, on the selection of agricultural technologies. With the close presence of fresh groundwater in steppe and forest zones, the possibilities for intensifying technologies increase significantly. With saline groundwater, the picture is reversed.
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