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THE Maxim Institute has warned that adopting Artificial Intelligence to boost agricultural productivity is the next leap forward for the primary sector, and without it New Zealand will fall behind its competitors.
AI is now used in areas including soil monitoring, insect and plant disease detection, crop and soil monitoring, insect and plant disease detection, livestock health monitoring, intelligent spraying, automatic weeding, aerial survey imaging, produce grading and sorting.
In a recent press release, Maxim painted a grim picture of what the New Zaland rural sector might end up looking like if it missed the opportunity to keep up with AI technology.
“Rusting machinery, a degraded environment, rundown farms being sold off for carbon credits; Aotearoa New Zealand blacklisted for poor farming practices. This could be our future because farming is changing,” Maxim’s communications manager Jason Heale said.
“Historically we’ve been the agricultural innovator, a leader in precision farming, producing more from less. But the cutting edge we’re known for needs to get sharper if we want to stay ahead. America, Britain, Holland, Israel, and India are pioneering using AI in agriculture. To avoid the dark future outlined above, Aotearoa New Zealand must join, then overtake them.”
Maxim has released a paper entitled, At The Cutting Edge: How Artificial Intelligence Will Change Our Primary Sector Forever.
Paper author Dr Paul Henderson said the opportunities for boosting income from agriculture were astonishing and they ran to multiple specialised areas, all of which could be boosted by use of AI. These comprised everything from cow collars to self-guided spraying drones.
“Remember, agriculture accounts for roughly 80% of New Zealand’s exports (projected to be at $55 billion this year), providing the country with income and helping feed the world,” Paul said. Moreover, by 2050 agriculture production will need to increase by 70% to accommodate the growing population. Current farming methods are not up to the task. We need innovation. AI gives us the edge and will cement our place at the forefront of global farming.
“And in the age of climate change, we can again be world leaders in sustainable farming. The return on investment is proportionately huge. AI will strengthen agriculture. It will help with planning, planting, harvesting, irrigating, and managing soils. It will assist with monitoring pasture and livestock health, moving livestock, and overseeing the supply chain. It will create efficiencies, delivering higher profits. Seventy percent of New Zealanders agree that a farming-based economy is good for our future. Maxim’s research shows that this future is only possible through adopting AI,” Paul said.
The paper’s recommendations, include: Encouraging farmers to seek capital investment and create farming co-operatives, that the Government should implement a data code of conduct to standardise the handling of data, and ensure the use of ‘sandboxes’ in testing and implementing new AI technology.
With a hungry world to feed, the Maxim Institute said adopting AI to boost agricultural productivity would be the next leap forward.
