Why should you apply precision farming in insect production?

Precision farming is the future of agriculture. An increasing number of farmers worldwide adopted precision farming systems for a more rational and efficient approach to agricultural production. These systems provide intelligent insights that producers can use to ensure more efficient and effective farm management practices. 

Precision farming solutions help producers to boost profitability, reduce waste, increase yields, ensure compliance and reduce the negative environmental impact of agriculture. Solutions are tailored to meet the specific needs and goals of individual farms to ensure maximum returns. 

What is precision farming?

Precision farming,  also known as precision agriculture, is a farming management system that focuses on data-based decision-making through technologies. Such an approach eliminates human error from the planning and decision-making processes. 

Modern technologies used in precision farming include GPS, control systems, sensors, robotics, autonomous vehicles, variable rate technology, sampling, automated hardware, telematics, and software. These help to facilitate the gathering of reliable data that allows farms to manage the variability of heterogeneous zones, inputs, and processes more efficiently to increase the harvest. 

Precision farming, therefore, allows for more rational use of resources that benefits both farmers and the environment. 

What are the benefits of precision farming?

Precision farming has a broad-reaching benefit on a global scale. Today, most experts agree that traditional farming practices are unsustainable and unreliable for the farmers and those who depend on produce for sustenance. In many regions, agriculture fails to yield adequate food to support projected population growth and provide a good living standard for farmers. 

Precision farming provides a solution by enhancing the profitability and sustainability of agricultural production, a safer operating environment and it also significantly reduces the adverse impact on our environment. This is made possible by the technologies involved with precision farming systems that allow farms to optimize the use of available resources. 

Why is it worthwhile to apply precision in insect farming?

Insect production provides opportunities for mass-scale production of quality protein sources for both feed and food. With the increasing urgency of agricultural sustainability, it is the ideal solution with less environmental impact than crop or animal production. 

With sustainability at the heart of insect production businesses, precision farming technologies are intrinsically compatible. Precision farming solutions benefit insect producers by providing the data and insights to ensure they are as eco-friendly, resource-efficient, and as sustainable as possible. Precision farming is the most efficient way to ensure insect farms achieve maximum yield and profitability.

Lastly, precision farming technology significantly reduces the risk to operations and helps to monitor and prevent mistakes that may cause insect colony collapse that leads to high losses for the business. 

Is precision farming expensive?

Precision farming is not expensive because technologies are developed in a way that ensures benefiting the customer. In other words, the benefit outweighs the investment because the technologies are designed to bring value to the user. Cogastro is always innovating to ensure that systems are simple to use and cost-effective. We estimate our technology generates a Return of Investment (ROI) of at least 70% to our customers!

What are the main types of information?  

Precision farming provides scope for numerous types of data to be collected. The data provides a comprehensive and an easily-accessible insight for the operations, R&D, sales, and C level management teams to optimize agricultural production. 

Precision farming technology also uses data to measure and quantify resources and inputs in order to determine patterns related to environmental factors and feed, periodivity disease history, nutrients, planting depth densities, and the sex ratio. 

There are 3 main types of agriculture data in precision farming systems:

• Static data – information collected as a snapshot (yield data, sampling tests).
• Dynamic data – streamed information (collected every day or multiple times per day), for example, temperature, humidity, NH3, motion, sound, CO2, airflow.
• Unstructured data – includes data that cannot be coded (scouting notes and general field observations). 

The technologies used to gather this data are vast, varied, and ever-increasing in scope and application. Precision farming technology is evolving and developing new ways to improve the processes for its farmers. 

At Cogastro, we are developing with precision the insect life cycle and post-harvesting activities. Our solution utilizes these different types of data gathering in a more structured, consistent, and automated way. 

Here is an example of the information you can capture and store with the help of Cogastro.