Technology in farming is being used as a major component to grow successful businesses, lower costs, and increase productivity.
Cory Reed is Senior Vice President of Intelligent Solutions at John Deere. He says when it comes to agriculture productivity, precision Ag is very important in not only well-off countries but developing ones as well.
?We continue to invest and scale those technologies in so guidance technology, site specific agriculture is enabled through position guidance and Geo-positioning. We now have that technology available in 90 countries around the world. But as important as the technology being available, the better question is how do you use it. So certainly large farmers in certain markets can use it them today and even smaller farmers as well,? Reed said.
Reed says the best way to teach developing countries is through education.
Senior Vice President of Intelligent Solutions at John Deere Cory Reed speaks about Precision Ag at The World Food Prize in Des Moines.
?In markets like Kenya or Ghana or Zambia, we are actually putting mobile training units on the ground to go out and talk about extension-like how to better grow the crop, how to better use a tractor and a planter to plant rows to create an environment and set of growing conditions that results in better yields,? Reed said.
He adds Precision Ag is also cost-saving and environmentally friendly.
?If you think about first of all putting the seed in the right place. Precision ability so the ability to site-specifically control the number in placement of seeds. Putting just the right amount to get the best outcome. The same is true for nutrients. If you look at nutrient profile in an Iowa corn crop, someone could spend $120 to $200 dollars an acre in nutrients,? Reed said.
The question is, as technology progresses, will older and more traditional farmers actually want to take time to learn these new tools.
