Farmers need to produce more food in the next 50 years than they have in the last 600.
It’s becoming more and more clear that the future of farming will be very technological. The scarcity of water and arable land will create constraints for the growth in agriculture. We recognized that in the future, we will not be able to waste even a drop of water or a piece of arable land. Hence, the way forward is to embrace new technological solutions that allow farmers to produce more while using less resources.
Currently, there is a huge pressure on farmers to continuously increase efficiency. Recent technological advances, including GPS positioning, automatic steering and plant genetics, started to create an extensive transformation of agriculture. Big Data allows farmer to reduce guesswork by measuring, analyzing and adjusting every field operation. It is important to ensure that not only the biggest farms benefit from using technological innovations.
Our goal at eFarmer is to make precision farming available for every farmer and help them take advantage of new technologies by focusing on affordability, upgradeability and ease of use. We develop innovative solutions to support farmers increase yield, save time and resources, and automate the workflow. 
How can small and medium farmers start precision field work?
- The easiest way for the owners of small farms to start moving towards precision agriculture is to start with a simple solution. For instance, using their smartphones to access specifically tailored applications. It is also important to start with a technology that is upgradable in the future. One of those applications is eFarmer, which allows farmers to use their own devices as displays while navigating in the fields. Users can define the boundaries of their own fields in the system, drive precisely with their tractors, work during the night and in low visibility, keep field scouting notes and pictures with geolocations and save time on documentation by automatically saving data or creating reports about the used materials.
- When it comes to accuracy, farmers need to work with the highest precision to save the most on resources. However, the more accurate the system, the higher the price is, which can make it difficult for small and medium farmers to reach the desired level of precision. eFarmer has developed an RTK-GPS system suitable for farms from the size of 10 hectares for all field operations. The system is mounted on the roof of the tractor and wirelessly connects to the smartphone or tablet of the user.
- Products for small and medium farmers must be easy and quick to use and to set up. Complex products with steep learning curves are not suitable for small scale farming where time is of the essence. Furthermore, with the overarching goal of supporting farming families in continuing their much-needed work, to adopt and simultaneously harness the possibilities of new technologies is vital for the future of agriculture.
