5 Use Cases of RPA in Agriculture: Farm More Efficiently in '24

The world population recently reached the 8B mark. And by 2050, it will be almost 10B. A growing population dictates increased food production for sustenance. 

The agricultural industrial; however, is not the most sustainable nor the most efficient. They are responsible for: 

• 70%¹
• 24%²

Given that the scale of agricultural efforts should increase to meet the growing food demand, we can expand its current environmental shortcomings to increase. 

Automation tools, such as RPA, can automate some of the back-office tasks in the agricultural sector to rationalize the processes. 

In this article, we will explain the top 5 use cases of RPA in agriculture.

1. Manure addition 

RPA bots can send out alerts whenever the soil is ready for manure addition.  

The consensus is that early Fall³ is the best time to add manure to the soil. RPA bots can send notifications during the mid days of September, reminding the farmers to add manure. 

Applying manure at the wrong time or in the incorrect  quantity can have detrimental⁴ effects on the crops instead of nutrition. By scheduling automated reminders, the guess-work is taken out of manure addition.

Moreover, nutritional-wise, no two manure are the same⁵. If there are structured sets of data on: 

• All the specific crops on the land, 
• The precise composition of the soil, 
• And the manures’ nutrition level, 

The farmer can create business rules engines for the quantity and type of manure that should be applied to each farm terrain and crop. The RPA bot will follow the rule-based commands and send the notifications accordingly.

2. Soil preparation 

IoT sensors in the soil can gather its data and send it to the cloud. The RPA bots then can: 

• Extract the data, 
• Structure it, 
• Transport it onto a template or a spreadsheet as a report, 
• Send it to the farmer at specific intervals. 

Different soil types require different preparations. Sandy soils, for example, are lower in nutrients, as opposed to clay soils. This means their nutrition supplements should be in respect to their specific properties. 

If the farmer precisely knows: 

• Which patch of his land comprises what kind of soil, 
• The soil’s current nutrition levels, 
• And what they need, 

He/she can prepare the soil in a more data-driven and tailored manner to the soil’s needs, with respect to the specific amount of nutrients that it needs to nurture healthy crops. 

3. Irrigation 

RPA bots can schedule smart irrigators to start the watering process whenever the sensors indicate that the moisture level has fallen below the acceptable threshold for each crop and soil patch. 

The RPA bots can also be programmed via screen recording to scrape precipitation rate and schedule the irrigation phases in advance (i.e., if there’s heavy rainfall, irrigation could be pushed back). 

By irrigating the crops in an efficient and data-driven manner, water usage can be curbed. Moreover, overwatering can suffocate⁶ crops, cause costly water bills, and unnecessarily deplete water resources. 

Smart irrigation can be the answer to those challenges. We weren’t able to independently confirm the number, but reports suggest that smart irrigation sensors could save 20%⁷ more water than traditional methods. 

RPA bots can allow farmlands to use their water resources more efficiently and irrigate their lands methodologically.

4. Harvesting

Not all crops should be harvested simultaneously⁸. 

Bell peppers, for instance, should be harvested just before they will be eaten. Zucchinis should be harvested when they reach a specific size. Otherwise, they’d just keep on growing and lose their taste. 

The specific timings of harvests also differ: 

• Vegetables should ideally be harvested in the mornings⁹
• Grape wines, corn, tomatoes, garlic and onions are usually harvested at nights¹¹ in test weight reductions or mold growth (in case of excessive rainfall). Harvesting too early might result¹² in immature seeds and low moisture content. At either end of the spectrum, untimely harvesting jeopardizes crop quality.

  Logistically as well, late harvests might disrupt pre-scheduled transportation to distribution centers, farmers’ markets, and retail stores. 

  Depending on the type of the crop, between 20-50%¹³ of the food is perished during transportation. On-time harvests minimize the likelihood of crops going back while in transport because they were harvested and shipped close to their perishing date. 

  RPA bots can connect to IoT sensors that are monitoring the crops’ weight, the sunlight, and other variables to gather those data. With their OCR and NLP capabilities, they can then read the information, cross-reference them against their knowledge base, and specify when harvests should be done automatically.

  5. Yield prediction

  RPA bots can extract information from different datasets and feed them into ML models to predict the yield. 

  Yield is a function of: 

  • Weather, 
  • Soil condition, 
  • Seed and fertilizer type,
  • Crop weight, and more. 

  RPA bots can scrape and extract this data directly from websites thanks to agriculture APIs, and from IoT sensors, to input into ML algorithms. 

  The outcome will be a yield prediction with minimal human intervention. And because a machine makes the prediction , the analysts can feed the model with as many relevant variables as possible to increase accuracy. 

  However, this is a sophisticated model that doesn’t depend on RPA alone but on ML, deep learning, neural networks, and more.

  For more on agriculture automation

  To learn more about other applications of automation in the agricultural industry, read:

  • Top 5 Computer Vision Use Cases in Agriculture
  • 3 Ways Digital Transformation Improves Agriculture
  • Top 5 Use Cases & Best Practices of IoT in Agriculture

  You can also learn more about 100+ RPA use cases. And to get a comprehensive look into RPA, download our RPA whitepaper:

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  If you believe you would benefit from adopting an RPA solution, visit our data-driven list of RPA vendors.

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External Links

• 1. “Managing water sustainably is key to the future of food and agriculture of the world’s water usage.” Retrieved on 18 November, 2022.
• 2. “Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data.” EPA. February 25, 2022. Retrieved 18 November, 2022.
• 3. “Wise Use of Manure in Home Vegetable Gardens.” PennState Extension. 28 September, 2021. Retrieved on 18 November, 2022.
• 4. Fulhage, Charles (November, 2018). “Reduce Environmental Problems With Proper Land Application of Animal Manure.” University of Missouri. Retrieved on November 18, 2022.
• 5. “Manure as a Nutrient Resource.” University of Massachusetts Amherst. Retrieved on November 18, 2022.
• 6. “Overwatering.” Missouri Botanical Garden. Retrieved on November 18, 2022.
• 7. “What Is Smart Irrigation?” Hydro Point. Retrieved on November 18, 2022.
• 8. “Tips For Harvesting Fruting Crops at The Right Time.” Green City Growers. Retrieved on November 18, 2022.
• 9. “Harvesting Vegetables.” HGIC. April 20, 2020. Retrieved on November 18, 2022.
• 10. “Night Work: A Growing Trend in Western Agriculture?” UC Davis Western Center for Agriculture Health and Safety. March 07, 2019. Retrieved on November 18, 2022.

Harvesting too late could result¹⁰ “Late Harvest and Grain Quality Concerns” Ohio state University Extension. 2015-2019. Retrieved on November 18, 2022.