There is a huge pressure on agriculture to meet the demands of the future. Year after year, food farms strive to meet the continuously growing demand to produce more food for the growing population. However, working to meet this demand is much harder than any one of us can imagine.
Despite the efforts of our food providers, there are certain things that tip the scale, affecting production rates, cost, and availability of food supplies. Aside from that, the negative impact of climate change has resulted in the reduction of crop quantity as well as its quality.
Fortunately, the technological advancements and modern farming techniques have paved the way for better, more efficient farming, allowing growers to meet the ever-increasing demand for food.
Modern Farming
Modern farming methods have given farmers and growers a means to combat the effects of climate change and the scarcity of fertile farmland; situations that pushed the agricultural sector, especially the farmers, to find a way to increase production despite the less than ideal farming conditions.
Modern farming takes the time-honored practices of traditional farming into account but, unlike before, does not involve the extensive use of land — a natural resource that is encroached by commercialization, bit by bit.
While there still remains enough farming land to sustain the entire nation; these lands are being put to good use by using farming techniques that are twice more efficient than traditional techniques; it will not be enough to sustain the growing need of the increasing population, half a decade down the line. Considering how much the climate has changed in the past decade, using alternative farming methods is the only way to reduce the environmental impact of poor farming methods and its overutilization of resources. This is where modern farming comes in.
Because this method requires no soil in the farming method, the crops do not suffer from the typical problems that occur in farmlands: weeds, pests, lack of soil nutrition to name a few. Because these problems are not present in this modern farming technique, reputable hydroponic farming companies use fewer weed and pest control solutions, allowing them to grow and produce cleaner crops.
Aside from that, food production can also be increased by growing plants in water, using mineral nutrient solutions without the need to plant in soil. For example, hydroponic farming. This means farmers have control over the amount of nutrients that the plants need to grow and reach their full size. As a result, we are given access to high-quality farm produce, allowing us to put nutritious food on our table to nourish our bodies.
Modern farming techniques and practices allow farmers to grow crops through the changing seasons and reach an impressive level of production to keep the supply steady throughout the year. This reduces the cost of seasonal products and increases their availability throughout the year and to a greater portion of the population.
Farming Technology
Aside from efficient farming methods, growers can also benefit from the advancement of technology and its application in farming methods. Some of the benefits include increased production, a streamlined process, less dependency on manual power, and the use of data to help growers make better farming decisions and make their jobs easier.
The Internet alone has a growing space occupied by farming platforms where growers can gain access to a wealth of information that they can use to improve and scale their production to the most that they can.
Since the application of GPS technology in farming has made it possible to create soil fertility maps, growers can accurately measure the amount of water fertilizer required in a sample section, to improve the farming conditions in a specific area. Through the help of mapping, growers can also avoid land with poor soil conditions and identify areas with better growing conditions. With the information they can gather from tech data, they can target specific portions of the land and employ the proper farming strategy to increase production and quality as well.
Food Waste Management
Other sectors are also calling the country’s attention to find a solution to the food waste problem that continues every year.
Every year, billions-worth of food is tossed into the waste bin across the country, and almost half of the contributing segment comes from domestic food wastage. This inspired huge organizations and non-profit organizations to work together and find ways to reduce the amount of food thrown away by homes and restaurants over a one-year mark.
The US isn’t alone in fighting this problem and this problem certainly does not exist exclusively in our country alone. In 2016, France passed a law that requires supermarkets to put their unsold food to good use: donate to charity or use it as animal feed.
Food waste is an economic problem as much as it is an agricultural problem. Addressing the problem with food wastage also addresses the problem with hyper-production requirements and the hyper exhaustion of natural resources.
