While there has been a tremendous focus on Brexit and its potential impact on agriculture in the UK, farmers on these shores are facing up to a wider range of more universal challenges.
For example, it’s thought that global population growth will necessitate 70% more food production by the year 2050, while labour shortages and rising demand for sustainable home-grown products will create further hurdles in the years to come.
However, the agriculture sector is renowned for its ability to adapt through innovation, with the use of air compressor products helping to drive innovation and create higher levels of productivity. Here’s how!
Investment in Air Compressors and Their Use in Agriculture
Interestingly, air compressors are renowned for their versatility and cross functionality, with new technologies having been developed to help leverage this and create more efficient farming techniques.
This is part of a widespread, global investment in agtech (agricultural technology), which has expanded considerably in recent years and recorded a 32% increase to $2.6 billion in 2017 alone.
One of the best applications of air compressor technology exists in crop planting and technology, with the use of advanced products helping to all but eliminate manual labour from this process and create a more automated approach.
Prototype and early stage products have taken the form of drones that can plant seeds in a completely autonomous way, by utilising compressed air to shoot pods also containing fertilizer directly into the soil from above.
Make no mistake; this minimises the painstaking nature of crop planting and the time taken to complete this often arduous process, making it much quicker without triggering an increase in costs.
The Issue of Farm Maintenance
In many ways, tasks such as farm maintenance are particularly problematic for farmers, as they can be time-consuming but have no direct impact on sales or profitability.
Fortunately, air compressors offer a viable solution to this issue, as they provide a huge amount of power to clean large-scale production areas quickly and efficiently, conserving energy and freeing up more time to focus on money-making endeavours.
This can also help farmers to save money directly, by preserving tools and equipment while optimising their potential longevity.
On a similar note, compressed air also has the capacity to save farmers’ money in instances where they’ve previously invested in malfunctioning systems that may already be in place.
More specifically, air compression systems that blow soil out from the drainage field can simultaneously reopen pipes in septic systems, saving land-owners the time and trouble of replacing them.