“After almost a century of deploying a more-is-more approach to chemical herbicides, the global agricultural sector is rapidly rolling out advancements that promise to curb the use of weed-control sprays by as much as 90%. Using artificial-intelligence powered cameras, the new sprayers can identify and target invasive plants while avoiding the cash crops. If even a fraction of growers adopt the new tools, it could mean a big shift for crop-chemical majors like Bayer AG and BASF SE,” reports Bloomberg News:
“Though they don’t widely acknowledge it, they realize selling millions of gallons of product is a blunt and fading model,” Jason Miner, global head of agriculture at Bloomberg Intelligence, said of the herbicide industry.
Crop protection is a big business, valued at about $79 billion in 2022, according to S&P Global, with herbicides comprising almost half of the overall market. In the US, weed killers are used on 96% of planted corn acres, compared to 19% of fields that are treated with fungicides and 14% with insecticides, according to a 2021 US Department of Agriculture survey. About 28% of cropland gets sprayed via aerial applications, but the vast majority relies on ground sprayers.
Some robots using artificial intelligence can identify and kill 100,000 weeds per hour.
On some American farms, there are already drones with artificial intelligence that spray fungicides to kill pests. As Bloomberg News notes, “These aerial acrobats use less than a tenth of the energy of ground tractors — and they don’t squash the crops, rut the earth or even touch the soil.”
Scientists are planning to use proteins found in ferns as a potent weapon against pests, reducing the need for environmentally-harmful pesticides.
Researchers discovered that a plant virus could be used to save crops from root-eating pests. A virus is being used to cure deafness in new gene therapy.
A genetically-modified chicken lays eggs that people allergic to eggs can eat.
Scientists have genetically engineered a cow that produces human insulin in its milk.
Genetic engineering recently produced bacon and pork that people who are allergic to red meat can eat.
Robots with artificial intelligence are spreading on Japanese farms.
