Agritech platforms are soon to become a new normal in the agriculture industry as they provide access to agricultural inputs such as planting material, seeds, fertilizers, equipment, etc., to the farmers. Moreover, these platforms also offer adequate information on the quality of the product and suggest best practices to enhance the yield. Moreover, the fact that farmers rely completely on agriculture and they can't afford even a minor disruption will primarily drive the demand for agritech platforms in the coming years.
Agritech platforms hold huge potential in the future due to growing automation in the industry. Furthermore, agritech platforms are expected to unveil the untapped potential of the agriculture sector by enhancing productivity and overall results. The concept encompasses all applications, practices, products, and services that improve every aspect of the agricultural process, including input or output.
Here is the list of factors that depicts how agritech platforms are going to help farmers in new ways.
Improved Supply Chain:
Agritech platforms, such as Dashboard and Intello Labs, allow users to compare the quality of a supplier, location, or commodity based on the desired period. Thus, it helps users improve the supply chain.
Agritech companies provide efficient applications to keep a record of quality. In addition, the comprehensive supply chain management software goes beyond expectations by offering agile decision-making services supported by precise, data-driven analytics.
Smart Farming:
Smart farming is a farming method that uses advanced inspection and research technology. These technologies are installed in farms and fields to develop a smart farming ecosystem. Automation has changed the outlook of almost every sector, and the agriculture sector is not far from this growing trend. Automation has opened various doors of opportunities for the farmers by offering new advanced technology to simplify their work. For instance, automatic fruit sorting machines can reduce the time of the tasks by sorting the fruits efficiently altogether. Here is the list of areas where automation is helping farmers.
Automated irrigation and farm maintenance –
Automated irrigation can efficiently bring productivity to the crop yield. In addition, it will also decline the use of water and energy, which will not only save the expenses but also benefit the environment. Moreover, agritech, which involves robotics and other efficient technology in farming practices, is expected to open a lot of room for advancements and innovations. Robotics can help amplify the efficiency of agriculture by locating and identifying the quality of the product. In addition, it can specifically keep aside the ripe vegetables/fruits and optimize water usage.
Conventional methods use a lot of time, energy, and agritech can reduce the manual work by speeding up the processes on the farm.
Utilization of weather forecasts:
Weather plays an important role in farming practices. Nature provides a highly sustainable environment for crop growth and plays a significant role throughout the agricultural practices, including seeding the fields at the optimal time of year to help achieve higher yields. Thus, the new technologies in weather forecasts can help farmers plan everything and get higher yields. Agritech is robust technology to track and provide accurate information about the weather. It also tracks the soil quality and current soil condition. Thus, it can help farmers increase their crop yield by involving the best practices.
Precision Farming:
In precision farming, sensors, satellites, drones, and data are used to make precise decisions in terms of crops and plots of land. The growing demand for excellent practice is expected to be opportunistic for the agritech businesses. In the agricultural industry, IoT solutions are used to optimize farming without consuming a lot of farmers' resources and time. It also helps them with real-time statistics on their crops and fields. Furthermore, resource depletion and climate changes are opening doors for new technologies, which can solve the problems. Thus, agritech platforms can help farmers combat these issues. Moreover, the involvement of heavy machinery causes intense pollution, which is driving concerns across the world. Agritech platforms can have significant potential in this field too.
Big Data to help consumers and farmers:
Logistics is also expected to be a big hit in the coming years as it will allow consumers to track the origin of the vegetables and fruits. Mostly, the major concerns revolve around the quality of farms and products. Various agritech companies offer services through which consumers can track the origin of the product. In addition, this revolution is forecast to break down borders and eliminate the middle man.
Production & Transportation Facilities
Agritech is forecast to enhance the potential of agriculture practices by reducing the food miles. The technologies involved in agritech allow users to grow food in urban areas. Thus, it reduces the time taken on transportation and the cost. Moreover, users get to have fresh food. In terms of trading, farmers usually rely on the middleman, which reduces their profit. Through agritech platforms, farmers can directly communicate with the consumers and offer them fresh food.
Conclusion:
The global agriculture sector is undergoing a myriad of changes after the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the growing popularity of agritech platforms is expected to simplify the majority of tasks for the farmers. In addition, government support in various countries will be a significant boon for the agritech platform industry. According to a study by Astute Analytica, the global agritech platform market is forecast to grow at a tremendous compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.2% during the forecast period from 2022 to 2030.
