Often, farming is thought of by urban dwellers as an antiquated, labor-intensive endeavor that requires backbreaking labor and time. While the amount of work it entails still rings true, technological advancements now allow farmers to save time and decrease their environmental toll, while simultaneously increasing efficiency and crop yields.
Farmers now employ such technological tricks as GPS systems that track land that has been plowed and modern tractors that will actually email or text a farmer when it is time for service. These are not the used tractors of the past. The technologies allow farmers to save money, incredibly important in an increasingly competitive global economy.
The advancements were first viewed as a "gee-whiz toy to make pretty maps and drive the tractor straight," Steve Cubbage, the president of consulting firm Record Harvest Enterprise, told the Kansas City Star. However, Cubbage stresses that farmers are now "seeing the economic benefits, "including a reduction in "seed costs by 10 percent to 15 percent" and a decline in overplanting.
The ultimate benefit of all these technological developments is the increased effectiveness and output of farmers. With an ever-expanding world population that needs food to sustain it, the agricultural advancements will surely usher in an era of higher farming output and efficiency.