In the course of the past few decades, technology has caused dramatic changes to the way we live our lives, socialize, and do our jobs. While agriculture professionals have generally been slow to adopt new advances in farming technologies, developed countries are already starting to see the effects of innovative technology on the farming industry. This often includes both positives, such as improved yields, and negatives, such as higher land prices.

During the past few decades, farmers in developed countries have seen the cost of farmland rise continuously. For example, in the United States, the average cost of one acre of farmland has increased from $1,800 to more than $3,160 from 2006 to 2020. In some states such as California, the price of farmland can reach up to $39,000 per acre. At the same time, the average size of farms in developed countries is continuing to increase.

In addition to rising demand and decreasing supply of farmland, these changes are also attributed to the implementation of modern farming technologies.

As mentioned above, modern agriculture techniques are helping farmers higher profits with the same amount of land by increasing the value each acre can provide. In the past, labor costs could account for between ¼ and ¾ of a crop’s price. This forced many farmers to even leave crops in the fields when it was too expensive to harvest them. However, automated farming technologies such as tractor autosteer systems are able to take over some of the routine and labor-intensive tasks previously performed by humans.

In addition to automating farming operations, innovating farming technologies can help farm owners make the most out of their land by taking into account different features of the soil, optimizing irrigation, fertilizing, etc.

Modern farming technologies are revolutionizing the way we farm and there’s no way of getting around it. In the fast-changing agriculture environment dominated by labor shortages and rising land prices, farmers need to adapt and invest in new technology to ensure that they can remain profitable and even achieve higher yields and profits than ever before.