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What is Agrotech?
Agrotech is the combination of agriculture and technology. It is the use of technological tools to improve and ease agricultural processes, leading to better crop and animal yield.
In conventional agriculture, we see a certain level of productivity and yield that is affected by so many factors, but with agrotech, there is improved quality and yield.
Applications include:
• Farm automation involves using technology to make farming more efficient. Technology performs tasks such as planting, harvesting and crop monitoring. Technology used include robots, drones, and sensors.
• Precision agriculture allows farmers to maximize yields by controlling every variable of crop farming. Technology such as GPS sensors and data analytics are used.
What is Biotech?
Biotech, short for biotechnology is the use of living organisms to make or improve a product. It may involve the manipulation of DNA or other relatively new technology.
Agricultural biotechnology is the collection of various technology that helps us to improve crop or animal yield and quality.
Various technology that can be applied in agricultural biotechnology include:
• Genetic engineering/recombinant DNA technology which involves manipulation of genes by introducing, eliminating, or rearranging specific genes in the organism.
• Tissue culture is the method of growing fragments of plants or animal tissues on specially formulated nutrient media.
• Molecular breeding uses genomic tools in breeding plants and animals.
The future of Agriculture.
Investing in research on agrotech and biotech can lead to the integration of advanced technologies in agriculture, unlocking opportunities for sustainable development, increased productivity, and improved resource efficiency in the agricultural sector.
The different applications in agrotech and Biotech are key tools in agriculture. They both play crucial roles in agriculture and together they enhance efficiency and sustainability.
Agrotech through automation and precision farming is able to monitor fields, plant health, weather conditions, crop development and yields, etc. It also helps farmers with smart machinery to optimize fertilizer and herbicide application, thereby saving resources and time.
Drones help farmers to reach areas of their farms that are not easy to, access the fertility of crops and successfully plan irrigation. They can even be used to measure soil damage in cases of flood.
Biotechnology through scientific techniques modify and improve plants, animals and microorganisms. It develops crops through improved nutritional quality, resistance to pests and diseases, resistance to drought.
Using the recombinant DNA technology, DNA sequences are manipulated by inserting, removing or modifying in order to introduce a new trait or change a characteristic of an animal.
In Conclusion;
These developments have reduced work hours, created more jobs, increased yield, and generally provided more nutritious foods.
The future of agriculture indeed holds exciting possibilities. Continued advancements in robotics, artificial intelligence, and automation could lead to more extensive use of robots in various farming tasks. This shift has the potential to increase efficiency, reduce labor demands, and further optimize agricultural processes.
Photo credit: Pexel
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