This is how digital farmers are

"More than many other industries, agriculture uses digital technologies and artificial intelligence to become more efficient. The potential for the future is great. But there are also problems.

 

Artificial intelligence (AI) has long since found its way into agriculture. Almost half of the agricultural businesses in Germany (47 percent) are currently looking into the possible uses of artificial intelligence. Around one in ten businesses (9 percent) use AI, and a further 38 percent are planning or discussing its use. The larger the business, the more intensive the use and engagement with AI: while only 27 percent of businesses with 20 to 49 hectares use, plan or discuss AI, the figure is 38 percent for businesses with 50 to 99 hectares and 52 percent for large businesses with 99 hectares or more. These are the results of a representative survey of 500 agricultural businesses presented by the digital association Bitkom and the German Agricultural Society (DLG) on Monday.

 

"Agriculture is one of the pioneers of AI and is ahead of most other sectors," said Bitkom CEO Bernhard Rohleder. "AI can massively reduce the burden on agricultural businesses, leaving farmers more time for other tasks. Smaller businesses in particular should make greater use of the possibilities offered by AI."

 

According to the survey, farmers see the greatest potential for the use of AI in climate and weather forecasts. 54 percent of businesses that are involved in AI, are already using it or are planning to use it, are concentrating on this. 36 percent of farmers see potential in market analyses or price forecasts, and 28 percent each in harvest and production planning or yield forecasts. 46 percent of businesses that use, plan or discuss AI want to improve crop protection. But AI is also being planned, discussed or used outside of the stable and field: 39 percent hope to reduce the burden on daily office work.

 

Time savings and greater efficiency through digital technologies

 

Bureaucracy is one of many reasons that put farmers under pressure. The farmers surveyed cited the rules and regulations (97 percent), a lack of political support (96 percent) and agricultural producer prices that are too low (91 percent) as the biggest challenges. The effects of climate change and increasing sustainability requirements are also causing problems for many businesses.

 

Nevertheless, a large majority of farmers (79 percent) see digitization as an opportunity for their own business. 15 percent see it as a risk, and for 6 percent digitization has no impact. According to the survey, the biggest advantages are time savings (69 percent), greater efficiency in production (61 percent) and physical relief (57 percent).

 

But companies are also placing great hopes in digital solutions for the future of the entire industry. 80 percent believe that digital technologies will enable them to produce agricultural products in a more environmentally friendly way. Specifically, farmers hope that digital technologies will help them use fewer pesticides and save other resources. A large proportion also hope that the technology will improve animal welfare. At the same time, digitalization itself represents a challenge for around half (54 percent) of agricultural businesses.

 

Digitalization in agriculture is no longer a thing of the future. Overall, 90 percent of businesses use at least one of the numerous digital solutions. The most common are GPS-controlled agricultural machines, which 69 percent of businesses use today. Two years ago, this figure was only 58 percent. Digital field records, cow or sow planners are also relatively widespread at 68 percent. These can be used, for example, to track the animals' breeding cycles.

 

And something also seems to be happening in terms of sustainability: 36 percent of farmers rely on applications that allow fertilizer to be applied "partially" where the plants need it most. Almost a third of farmers also use such applications for crop protection products in order to only spray where it is necessary.

 

While automatic feeding systems are running on 24 percent of farms and 22 percent of farmers use milking or stable robots, robots can only be found in the fields on 5 percent of farmers.

 

Obstacles remain in practice

 

Despite some potential, there is still a lot of catching up to do in practice: farmers give the current political work on the digitalization of agriculture an average grade of 4.7. Accordingly, a good half (52 percent) of the farms feel that they are not sufficiently involved in the planning of political measures. 51 percent of the farmers consider inadequate internet access to be one of the biggest obstacles. 

This is followed by concerns about the loss of data sovereignty and the high complexity of digital systems, each with 49 percent. 

Last but not least, new technologies also have to be financed. 75 percent of farmers see the usually high investment costs as an obstacle. Concerns about more bureaucracy and inadequate standardization of interfaces and the networking of systems also resonate when it comes to digitization and AI." [1]

1. So digital sind die Bauern. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (online) Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH. Jun 3, 2024. Von Anne Kokenbrink