Comments
DHagar
8/1/2016 1:24:32 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@ms.akkineni, thanks. And to your points, I fully agree:
- Profit margins - for those who make the farming process an effective production system, there can be good profits. It no longer rewards anyone who just wants to farm. Like anything else, it has to be effective.
- JohnBarnes - overview of the system - agreed - "understanding" the evolutionary changes and what makes the system work helps to make sense. Again, information and knowledge makes things better!
Great points, ms.akkineni, as always.
DHagar
8/1/2016 1:19:54 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@JohnBarnes, thanks for that fascinating review of Ag! Totally makes sense and explains the evolutionary trends.
Our farms have been becoming highly productive and the jobs have been shrinking, so it is generally becoming more industrialized - for better or worse - but it does keep a high level of food production and at costs that are affordable; making it highly competitive in the world market.
True on the Ag jobs, but they are declining anyway, and if the farms went out of business there would be no jobs. Possibly more jobs may be developed, even though there will be fewer. Possible new jobs can be managing the machinery, including repairs, and hopefully, data-driven jobs.
Progress is never easy! We need to learn how to adapt and optimize!
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
LOL...I can see the lecturing part, but I may not be bored all the times, depends on the topic.
JohnBarnes
7/31/2016 7:27:37 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
Mind you, in real life I'm that immensely boring man who stands around lecturing people at parties.
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@John:
Great length of details. I always cherish the wealth of information that you share in this forum and I truely appreciate that. Thank You!
JohnBarnes
7/31/2016 6:51:14 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
There's always been a paradox in agricultural economics because the three big components in the production equation -- land, labor, and "physical capital" (aka machines and buildings) -- have an unusually intertwined relationship. The most productive agricultural land on Earth in terms of nutrients per square meter tends to be the land with the most workers per hectare on it -- truck farms, rice paddies, etc. This is because there's a huge informational component -- you get a lot more food out of your vegetable garden by weeding it (high information -- each individual plant reviewed frequently to see if it's a weed or intentional) and by having soil moisture, freeze risk, insect and varmint situation, etc. checked several times a day.
However, ag workers (as opposed to farmers) not only get paid for zilch, they're too expensive even at that rate (because their jobs require only a little training), so agribusiness has functioned for many decades on substituting physical capital for people (the tomato harvesting machine might lose a quarter of the tomatoes by picking them too green and another quarter that are overripe, but it can run through thousands of acres per day with three workers running it, so it's more tomatoes for the dollar, even if they resemble greenish-reddish tennis balls; the hand picker gets many more per hectare but costs much more per hectare).
What this does is potentially breaks the paradox. Instead of irrigating the wheat based on the average situation from past records and weather reports across an area half the size of a Nebraska county (the low-information agribiz way) you get reports every 15 minutes from 50,000 soil monitors that cost a buck each, integrate that info, and put the water only where it's needed. You pick what's ready when it's ready and leave the plant producing (or the stuff that isn't ready to ripen); you see weeds coming up and (sometime soon) even zap them individually.
Mind you, it can also be looked on as a 21st century way to hose over the agricultural workers yet again. But their situation has been worsening since the late Middle Ages, so I suppose it won't be anything new ..
JohnBarnes
7/31/2016 6:38:34 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
afwriter,
I've known enough farmers to say they tend to be a lot less set in their ways than the typical industrial plant manager or retail business operator. Betcha they're all over this as soon as it's easily available (nobody likes to be the alpha-test guinea pig)
dlr5288
7/31/2016 6:21:23 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
Good point!
I think some people are stuck in their old ways when it comes to new technology. They're used to doing things the way they've been doing it for years and might not totally trust new devices.
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
DHagar:
Yup, vineyards is a very good example that could readily adapt this model.
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
there's not a super-high profit margin in farming
@faryl:
I have to respectfully disagree with you on this. Now people are moving into organic products for all produce. Lately there is an incline for organic prodcuts which triggered organic farming boom. I believe there is good reasonable marigins for this.
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