Climate change intensifies yearly and becomes difficult to cultivate crops. Temperature is getting higher, and patterns of rain are becoming uncertain, as well as the occurrence of severe events such as drought and flooding. All these events tend to affect crops and drive costs up. Agri-tech, or agricultural technology, offers new ways for adapting to these changes to ensure that farming becomes sustainable again. Here, among the latest agri-tech solutions that fight climate change while staying in line with sustainability, the following agri-tech solution will be described.
Smart irrigation system
This is one of the biggest issues at present, mainly in dry areas. Smart irrigation helps farmers use water as much as the sensors and data indicate how much the plant will require. Records from 2023 indicate that 50% of the farms in California have employed smart irrigation technologies. Even drip irrigation systems and soil moisture sensors are there that save water and decrease carbon footprint in this highly water-intensive farming practice.
Vertical Farming
There was vertical farming, or crops in multiple layers. This practice has increased rapidly, particularly in city areas. In most areas, they use significantly fewer lands and waters but manage to provide much more food over a lesser area. For instance, a 2022 report showed that such vertical farms could potentially save around 90% of water resources compared to traditional farming setups. Crops also do not need to travel great distances for consumption by people because they can be planted even closer to the vicinity. This also reduces emissions.
Precision Farming with Drones and AI
Farmers can now monitor their crops better due to drones and artificial intelligence. The drones fly over fields, take high-resolution images, and these pictures help the farmer identify early any problems in the field, such as pests or plant diseases. AI quickly analyzes these pictures, giving the farmer an opportunity to make real-time decisions. CropIn is an India-based artificial intelligence crop management tool where infestations are tracked prior to their being able to happen, making the farmer enable better crop quality. Precise farming requires less quantities of pesticides that can otherwise hurt the environment while maximizing more crop yields in sustainable ways.
Bio-fertilizer Soil Health
Normal fertilizers release greenhouse gases and make soil unhealthy. Biofertilizers are natural fertilizers prepared from microbes. These fertilizers make the soil fertile without any harmful effects of chemical fertilizers. Companies such as Pivot Bio have developed biofertilizers, which have helped in reducing nitrogen fertilizers by 25%. The health of the soil would result in better crops. But the carbon stored can reduce the effect of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Renewable energy on farms
Farmsteads are increasingly using renewable forms of energy, including solar and wind power, and reducing their dependence on fossil fuels. Low Carbon Farming, a farm in the UK, is one such example where it installed solar panels on its greenhouses so that it could cut the carbon emissions by half as much as it did prior to the installation. Soon, tractors and implements may be replaced by solar engines instead of diesel. Again, a giant step ahead towards sustainability.