By 2050, the demand for food will increase by seventy percent globally with a rapid surge in the global population. But the monumental task of feeding approximately ten billion people can be daunting.

However, with the advent of technology, innovations in agricultural and modern farming methods and techniques can help increase farming yields.

Here are some modern farming methods and techniques that can help you grow, transport, store, and manage your produce effectively:

Water Management Methods And Technology

Irrigation is one of the most important cultivation and growth processes at your farm. If you don't have access to an adequate water source, you'll have to get creative to transport a large amount of water to your field.

During irrigation, you want to avoid overwatering your crops. So, flood irrigation is out of the question because it can drown your fields and carry excess fertilizer into water streams and lakes. The center pivot irrigation combined with drip technology can sufficiently water your plants and create a hospitable and thriving environment for your crops. It can optimize your water usage by up to fifty percent and improve crop quality.

Farm Automation And Management Methods

Farm automation technology combines computer systems, agricultural machinery, chemical sensors, and data management practices to improve farming and irrigation equipment operations. It improves and eliminates human error and assists in timely decision-making processes in the agricultural business.

This technology also helps reduce labor, improves yields, and allows large-scale technology adoption at farms. So, you can now use automated harvesters, drones, tractors, and seeding machines to transform your cultivation practices.

Considering irrigation practices, center pivot irrigation system is one of the most notable modern irrigation today. It helps you save time, labor, and energy. And most importantly, it conserves water usage at your farm. Now, you can connect your modern farming and irrigation equipment to a central database, like FarmERP, to track the cultivation, growth, and harvest process. It can give summarized reports on the progress and allow you to spend more time with your family than before.

FarmERP is a resource management solution that can help streamline your farming process. It’ll also help you monitor your finances, supply chain, and procurement from a single hub.

Indoor Vertical Farming

Did you know the average rice yield per hectare is between 3 and 6 tons? However, if you use indoor vertical farming, you won't have to face this problem. Indoor vertical farms grow plants stacked on top of each other while mounted on vertical shelves. It's a great way to grow crops in a limited space. Oftentimes, vertical shelves don't need soil as the crops can grow in aeroponic and aquaponic agricultural systems.

What is Aquaponics?

Aquaponics is a subset of hydroponics that grows plants in nutrient solutions and water. It’s a closed-loop system that sustains itself on a symbiotic relationship between fish and plants for fertilization. The fish are enclosed in a large tank. As the fish waste accumulates in the tank, the water travels to the plants providing valuable nutrients for growth. In return, the plants clean the water, which flows back to the main tank. It creates a balanced and less regimented agricultural environment.

So, for this method, you can use prawns, fish, or snails in a water tank and connect it with a smaller reservoir containing plant roots. The three components, fish, plants, and animal waste (bacteria), work in tandem to increase crop yield and growth.

It's an effective modern farming method because it:

- Eliminates the need for soil and inhibits soil-borne diseases

- Can produce both a vegetable and protein crop

- Allow continuous cultivation and growth

- Is free from antibiotics and expansion hormones

- Uses natural fertilizer sources

What Is Aeroponics?

Aeroponics is a process that grows crops in either a mist environment or the air using soil or any aggregate medium. The word "Aeroponics" refers to the Greek words "Aer" and "Ponos" meaning "air" and "labor". This method lets you control the water flow and amount used during cultivation. However, it can also make the plant roots vulnerable to pathogens if you don't manage the environment of your crops.

This system is more cost-effective than aquaponics and hydroponics because it reduces the water volume and nutrient solution required to grow the crops. It also eliminates the need for substrates to carry nutrients to the roots.

Conclusively, aeroponics makes it easier to control plant growth. It's cost-effective because you won't have to spend a fortune on irrigation channels. And it's a disease-free cultivation method because plant contact between each plant is limited. If a plant gets infected, you can simply remove it from the vertical structure without disturbing the other healthy plants.

Bee Vectoring Technologies

It may seem strange, but bees are essential to human survival. So, we must protect the bees and help maximize their pollination capabilities. In the United States, bees are worth 20 billion U.S. dollars to the agricultural industry. The new Bess Vectoring Technology commercially rears bees to deliver targeted crop controls through pollination. This process replaces chemical fertilizer with a safer crop protection method.

So, you won’t have to spray chemical fertilizers through your center pivot irrigation systems any longer. Instead, the scientifically designed bumblebee hives allow the bees to pick up trace amounts of pest control powders on their legs as they travel through your farms and fields.

This method can help improve your crop yield and soil quality in the long run. It’s also suitable for different crops like tomatoes, apples, sunflowers, and blueberries and is compatible with farms of all sizes.

Buy Zimmatic Center Pivot For Your Farm

If you’re looking for quality irrigation equipment, check out Valley center pivots, Zimmatic center pivots, and Reinke center pivots at Flatwater Sales Inc. We also sell a large variety of irrigation equipment like Kifco water reels, ag-rain water reels, and pivot tires for sale.

Get in touch with us today for more information on our agricultural equipment.