Not Your Grandparents’ Farm: Agriculture in the 21st Century

Agriculture has been at the center of human life for millennia, influencing everything from what we eat to where we live. How we engage with agriculture has naturally shifted throughout time, impacted by changes in culture, technology, climate, available workforce, among other factors. Agriculture is undertaken on every continent across the globe; we rely on it for food, fuel, and textiles, among other things.   There is evidence that humans were engaging in agricultural activity up to 12,000 years ago, with a wide range of crops and livestock tended to, depending on the region and its climate. When we think about agriculture now, we may imagine the vast wheat fields of the prairies, herds of cows out at pasture, or being stuck behind a tractor driving down a country road. Though these may be the impressions that come to mind, agriculture is a diverse industry; each variety of crops has specific needs regarding planting, tending, and harvesting.

Agriculture is, as ever, vital to our survival; however, producers continue to face challenges when it comes to rising costs, shortages of available labour, and the unpredictable nature of farming.  Per Statistics Canada, farming is also one the professions with the highest rate of fatal injuries, ranking among mining, construction, and forestry. Non-fatal incidents are also a consideration; as farmers continue to age, the risk of injury increases.  It is common for producers to remain in the industry well past the average retirement age—farms are often family businesses, and transitions of ownership often take many years, with multiple generations working the farm concurrently. Additionally, farm labour is increasingly difficult to come by as the young workforce gravitates towards urban areas for work. Per the 2021 Canadian census, the median age of a Canadian farmer is 58 years old. Canada is home to more than 153 million acres of farmland (that’s about 981 Torontos) – our agriculture industry is heavily relied upon despite these challenges.

Now that we find ourselves amid the robotic revolution, the agriculture industry is one that is poised for innovation and adoption of more advanced technologies. With a combination of bespoke robotic tools and advanced vision AI, tasks that are often undertaken by labourers have the opportunity to automate, which increases productivity on the farm, and reduces overall risk. Producers are already adopting automation technology in a range of farming functions: grain and oilseed crops benefit from automated sprayers, fertilizers, soil monitoring, and even autonomous tractors, while smart greenhouses are also emerging for fruit and vegetable growers with automated watering and picking. Not only can solutions like this help mitigate common farming challenges by reducing labour needs or reducing wastage of materials like fertilizers or water, but they can also help improve yields in cases where the autonomous equipment also provides valuable farm management data that can be applied to future growing seasons.

For thousands of years prior to the industrial revolution, all agricultural work was undertaken manually. Sickles and scythes were used for harvesting, and animals like oxen were used to pull plows across fields. These methods still held up, even as motorized tractors and combines became more prevalent for largescale farming. Present day, most industrial grain and oilseed farms use mechanized equipment for planting, fertilizing, and harvesting, allowing individual farmers to cultivate more acreage than was possible with manual methods. Such tasks as de-tasseling corn, harvesting mushrooms, and picking tomatoes are still largely undertaken by human operators – but are ripe for transition to more automated methods like Ascension’s patent-pending automated tomato picker. The picker relies on advanced machine learning to identify ripe tomatoes of any variety, even with deviations in size, shape, and colour. Using a combination of custom software and a state-of-the-art internal camera, the picker is able to scan each vine and determine whether the fruit is ready for picking, then act accordingly, rapidly executing the flow from decision making to picking to sorting and packing, efficiently and effectively preparing ripe tomatoes for sale.

According to the Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association, Ontario alone is responsible for more than a third of Canada’s total fruit and vegetable production, with its contributions exceeding $3.16 billion in annual farm-gate value. Adopting technologies like automated tomato pickers allows current fruit & vegetable acreage to be harvested more efficiently and with less manpower, additionally reducing risk of job-related damages such as repetitive strain industries or exposure to harmful bacteria, chemicals, or other dangers. Agriculture of all kinds is a necessity for our survival—and progress within the industry has never been more important as we continue to adapt to changes in our climate, culture, and population. Integrating robotic technology on farms and in greenhouses stands to benefit both productivity and safety on the farm, keeping food on our tables and clothes on our backs for generations to come.