Automation in Agriculture : a Study

The world population is expected to reach 9.1 billion by year 2050 says FAO (World Food and Agriculture Organization) and to feed this population food production should be increased by at least 70%. Developing countries have to double their food production. The traditional methods of farming and ever decreasing farm labour availability is making agriculture economically unviable and inefficient. In above context research on development of intelligent, autonomous machinery for carrying agricultural activites is essential to improve the quantity and quality of the agricultural produce. Today there is an urgent need to address the issues like indiscriminate use of agrochemicals, conservation of energy, control on environmental pollution and effects of global warming. Automation of farming practices has proved to increase the food production levels. This paper surveys the work carried out by various researchers to get a holistic picture on current state of implementation of automation in agricultural practices around the world. Keywords— Mechanization, Automation,Farming, Sensor netwrks,