Innovations shape agricultural future

VanderSat of the Netherlands has microwave satellites that measure microwave signals radiating from the Earth’s surface. That enables observations to be made during cloudy days because of the physical properties of waves transmitted in the spectrum’s range, according to the company. The technology is being used to monitor soil moisture on a daily basis.

Lynn Grooms

From new seed traits to blockchain technology for tracking food through the supply chain, technical innovations are shaping agriculture. Six innovations, in particular, were recently highlighted by Willie Vogt, executive director for Farm Progress.

·         Gene editing

·         Internet of things

·         Aerial imagery

·         Machine learning and artificial intelligence

·         Robotics

·         Blockchain

·         Gene editing quick, less expensive ; 

“We’ve been in the (genetically modified organism) world a long time, but gene editing will be a lot more exciting,” Vogt said.

Gene editing enables plant breeders and molecular biologists to target a gene or genes they want to change in plants. Unlike conventional genetic modification, gene editing doesn’t involve introducing a gene from another species. The U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn’t regulate or have plans to regulate plants that could otherwise have been developed through traditional breeding techniques.

Gene editing is quicker and less expensive than genetic-modification technologies, said Crystal Carpenter, a senior economist at CoBank with a focus on specialty crops. Developing a variety using traditional genetic-modification techniques typically costs more than $100 million, she wrote in a February 2019 report.

“With gene editing it can potentially cost less than $10 million, and in some cases much less,” she wrote.

The first gene-edited food in the United States is a high-oleic soybean oil from soybeans developed by Calyxt of Minneapolis. “Calyno” oil contains about 80 percent oleic acid and about 20 percent less of saturated fatty acid compared to conventional soybean oil, according to Calyxt. The oil has as much as three times the “fry life” of conventional soybean oil and has a longer shelf life, the company stated. Calyxt is contracting 100,000 acres with farmers in 2020. Just 36,000 acres were planted in 2019.

And Corteva Agriscience, the parent company of Pioneer, is working on waxy corn developed through a gene-editing technique known as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats Cas – CRISPR-Cas. The waxy trait exists in some corn varieties, but has generally been accompanied by undesirable genes. With new gene-editing techniques the waxy gene could be inserted into the best hybrids without yield penalty. Waxy corn has a starch content of more than 97 percent amylopectin compared to 75 percent amylopectin and 25 percent amylose in conventional corn hybrids. Amylopectin is more soluble than amylose. It’s used for thickening foods and in the paper industry as an adhesive.

Internet of things more affordable ;

More farmers are using technology with internet of things. It’s the concept of connecting devices with an on-off switch to the internet. Cellphones and sensors are examples. Sensors are becoming less expensive and therefore can be used in various farming applications. More farmers and agricultural companies are using them to monitor grain moisture, tractor speed and soil moisture.

“You can place sensors in a field to tell you if you need to apply fungicide,” Vogt said.

Sensoterra, for example, makes affordable soil-moisture sensors. That might enable a farmer to have six sensor probes in a 20-acre field rather than one. AgXtend also has developed sensor technology that farmers can use to conduct complete soil tests on site. The technology can perform full wet-chemistry testing. While test results aren’t likely as precise as a laboratory, Vogt said, the technology could be a valuable tool for farmers.

Aerial imagery improves ;

Aerial imagery is another innovation shaping agriculture. Unmanned-aerial vehicles, aeroplanes and satellites deliver images – often on a weekly basis – throughout the growing season. The imagery those vehicles capture are improving in terms of better resolution, Vogt said.

He gave the example of VanderSat of the Netherlands. That company has developed microwave satellites that measure microwave signals radiating from the Earth’s surface. That enables observations to be made during cloudy days because of the physical properties of waves transmitted in the spectrum’s range, according to the company. The technology is being used to monitor soil moisture on a daily basis. Farmers could use it to more efficiently manage irrigation as well as fertilizer and crop-protection applications as well as to improve harvest predictions, according to VanderSat.

Source ; Kenosha news