The Current Landscape of Precision Agriculture

Is Technology Threatening The Small Farm?

Precision Agriculture Technologies (PATs) are currently a catlyst to the growing disparity between large-scale farming operations and small to medium sized farms. While the agricultural industry is not a zero-sum game, large-scale farming practices clearly benefit from systematic advantages, widening the resource gap experienced by small to medium-sized farming operations. High barriers to entry, such as costs and complexity of use, result in the benefits of PAT implementation to be primarily realized by large-scale farms. The edge gained by utiliing PATs is compounding; resources saved from implementation one season can be reinvested into the crop and farming infrastructure the next season, allowing for an exponential increase in yield year after year.

Smallholder Farming = A Thriving Future

Ensuring the future of smallholder farming is synonymous with ensuring the future of food security, environmental stability, and wide-spread economic affluence. Accoding to the USDA, small family farms are defined by gross cash farm income below $350,000 annually and make up about 89% of the population of farmers in the US [4]. These small family farms create food security and diversity through the variety of crops they generate, establishing agricultural biodiversity and reducing dependence on monocultures. In times of crop failure, diversity enhances food security by providing alternative non-effected crops. This diversity plays a role in environmental stability by cultivating soil health, supporting food-webs, and promoting pollination; in general, local farming practices are associated with taking better environmental stewardship over land. These smallholder farmers tend to employ and support local communities and their interests to a further extent than industrial farming.

[...] about 89 percent of all farms were small family farms. Small family farms operated 45 percent of U.S. agricultural land and produced 18 percent of the total value of production.

America’s Farms and Ranches at a Glance: 2022 Edition

Just as small and medium sized farms cannot afford to forgo precision agriculture, we as a community cannot afford to let these farms fall behind the industry.

Rapid advancements in hardware and artificial intelligence are enabling the creation of cost-efficient and user-friendly PAT tools. These developments have the potential to transform the current reality of farming, making these technologies more accessible to a broader range of agricultural operations.

Demographics Tell the Story

Socio-demographic variables (i.e., age, gender, education, farming experience, income, and farm size) and their correlation with PAT adoption can help explain the current state of precision agriculture in small to medium-sized farms. Studies show that individuals most likely to adopt PATs are between 25-50 years old, have post-secondary education, extensive farming experience, and manage large acreages [1]. Small-scale farmers are significantly underrepresented in this demographic compared to industrial farming operations. Examining the barriers to entry can help us understand how these demographic patterns emerged.

Cost, ease of use, reliability, power consumption, and signal range are the primary concerns affecting PAT adoption [1] [2]. While these challenges are more manageable for high-frequency adopters,they present significant barriers for small-scale farmers looking to implement PATs. At scale

Large-scale farming

What's Changed?

Cost and ease-of-use were by far the greatest barriers to entry for small-scale farms implementing PATs. Rapid advancements in computing, hardware, and AI make existing obstacles a thing of the past. The combination of low-cost remote sensors and machine learning offers an opportunity to drastically lower unit costs while maintaining data accuracy [3]. LoRa-enabled IoT devices allow for straightforward user interfaces and sensor pairing workflows, all while transferring high-throughput data over extended distances at minimal cost. These technological advances work together to lower the primary barriers to entry for PATs, enabling small-scale farms to leverage their advantages and remain competitive with large-scale operations.

References

  1. Factors Influencing Precision Agriculture Technology Adoption Among Small-Scale Farmers in Kentucky and Their Implications for Policy and Practice
  2. Exploring Barriers to the Adoption of Internet of Things-Based Precision Agriculture Practices
  3. Integration of Remote Sensing and Machine Learning for Precision Agriculture: A Comprehensive Perspective on Applications
  4. America’s Farms and Ranches at a Glance: 2022 Edition