Researcher to discuss how precision farming can meet growing food demand

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — To meet growing food demand, farmers and agricultural operations may need to produce 70% more food, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. A Penn State agricultural scientist suggests that precision farming — or precision agriculture — which relies on artificial intelligence (AI) and other high-tech tools, may be one way to meet this growing demand.

Dana Choi, assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering, will present a talk on how intelligent systems are shaping the future of agriculture, at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 3, in 233A of the HUB-Robeson Center. The talk is sponsored by the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS).

Precision agriculture can use a range of data-based tools to serve as practical solutions to tackle labor shortage and safety issues, while improving productivity, according to Choi, whose own research involves developing agricultural robotics and smart sensing systems for Pennsylvania’s specialty crops, including tree fruit and mushrooms.

“Data-based agricultural practices use real-time and historical data along with machine learning to make specific decisions for site-specific application in the field. In a smart agriculture laboratory, we use field cameras, sensors, and micro-climate data to monitor and provide crop information in real time,” said Choi. She added that an AI model, called deep learning, along with computer vision can analyze location-based data and offer farmers near-real-time reports about current conditions of their fields.

“This helps farmers in a number of ways, such as producing accurate diagnostics of individual areas or even individual plants, preventing crop damages from weather events, and controlling yield potential while reducing costs and environmental footprint,” said Choi.

Visit the ICDS event page for more information. Watch the talk online at this Zoom link.