Agriculture in the 21st Century

“21st century” is deemed as the century of change, the century of modern technology, and the era when almost everything’s being made easy.

How Technology has Transformed the World

Over the years, technology has transformed our lives into something bigger than we ever imagine. Science, technology, and engineering have made almost everything possible and have developed solutions to numerous problems worldwide. Technology has created amazing tools and resources, putting useful information at our fingertips (“Technology,” 2019). It has paved the way for multi-functional devices like smartphones, laptops, printers, etc. Moreover, computers and machineries become increasingly faster, more portable, and higher-powered than ever before. With all of these transformations, our lives also become easier, faster, better, and more fun.

It seems that nowadays people can no longer live without these hi-tech inventions. They become strongly dependent on technology. Who wouldn’t be if everything becomes easier with it? Technology is indeed becoming more intuitive with each passing day. Today, almost everywhere, there are traces of products of science and technology. Even in the agricultural industry, the modernization of technology has brought great influence in different aspects (e.g. agricultural practices, structures, machineries, pesticides, fertilizers, crops, animals).

The Integration of Technology to Agriculture

In the agricultural industry, technological innovations have indeed played an important role in making agricultural works easier and faster. Just like how it improved our way of communication, our transportation, etc., technology has also made a big transformation and developments in the traditional farming. Machineries, farm structures, and other agricultural equipment have been improved and are continuously being improved by technology for easier and more quality products.

In the 21st century, agriculture has received its fair share of advancement. For the past years, a lot of contributions for the betterment of this industry have been developed. One of these is genetic engineering. It is a process by which the genetic makeup of an organism is altered by inserting, deleting or changing specific pieces of DNA. This process is being used today in agriculture to solve problems especially on pests and climatic conditions. With the use of genetic engineering, it is now possible to grow crops in deserts (Ramey, 2012). Plants have been engineered to survive in drought conditions (Ramey, 2012). Scientists have managed to introduce traits into existing genes with a goal of making crops resistant to droughts and pests (Ramey, 2012). Aside from that, some crops have also been modified to become pest-resistant just like the famous BT corn. It is a genetically modified corn which contains “Bacillus thuringiensis” – bacteria making proteins that are toxic to some insects when eaten, but is not toxic to humans because, like all mammals, we cannot activate them.

Moreover, newly-improved agricultural machineries have also come to existence in this modern era. These machineries (e.g. planters, weeders, harvesters, etc) have made possible for farmers to cultivate acres of land with less labor, cost, and time. In agriculture, time and production are very important; planting must be on time as well as harvesting and delivery.

Aside from the improvement in the agricultural machineries, modernization also made transportation of agricultural products a lot better. Today, it is made possible for agri-products like fruits and vegetables to maintain its freshness even when being transported for many hours. Furthermore, transporting of fertilizers and other farm products has also become easier and faster with the aid of these modern transportation technology facilities.

Cooling facilities have also been introduced to agriculture which keeps the freshness of perishable crops like tomatoes while being transported to markets. These cooling facilities are installed in food transportation trucks so crops will stay fresh upon delivery. Furthermore, farmers have also embraced technology for irrigation. Today, advanced water sprinklers are being used to irrigate big farms. It helps the crops get enough water which is essential for their growth. Aside from that, there are also several new techniques discovered for better irrigation especially now that the effects of climate change are getting more intense.

Indeed, it is in the 21st century when almost everything is made possible. It is with no doubt that modernization has made our lives easier. However, behind these transformations happening, let’s always be mindful of how we’re going to let it affect us. Let’s not allow technology to become a hindrance in our development especially as a person. Use it wisely!

References

Karehka Ramey. (2012). Use of Technology in Agriculture. Retrieved from https://www.useoftechnology.com/technology-agriculture/

Anonymous. (2019). Technology in our Life today and how It has changed. Retrieved from https://www.aginginplace.org/technology-in-our-life-today-and-how-it-has-changed/

How I hope the agriculture in the Philippines will also thrive and be able to keep up with the agricultural advancement in other countries.

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P.S. My special thanks to @Ashma for inspiring everyone here on read.cash to write more quality articles and to continue in improving ourselves everyday. Keep helping and motivating people ❣

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