Automated farming or farming by robots and machines is becoming an increasingly accepted feature in agriculture across the world. New machines and technology are being devised that would ease and automate the farming process and make it faster and smoother. Automated farms are becoming a reality in large farms, and the European agriculture sector has been up in arms to take advantage of the development.

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In robo-farming, the fields are tilled, sown, tended and harvested by machines with innovative features like driverless tractors working on pre-programmed routes to boost agricultural production. Drones have been employed which assess the health of the crops and the conditions of the soil suitable for agriculture. Ground sensors are also being used to monitor the amount of water and nutrients in the soil and the amount of fertilizer that the soil needs.

Drought is also a big issue and technology is being developed to combat drought of the fields and develop an irrigation mechanism. Japan was the first country in the world to develop an entirely automated lettuce farm that is set to be launched next year. Hydroponic farms are being developed, and farm automation is aimed at producing more food and at a lower cost. Robots would also provide data on the state of fields and produce which would be like the Internet of agriculture.

Automation would monitor the growing, testing of seed crops and the susceptibility to weeds. Robots can also do precision pruning in vineyards to produce wine by visual recognition of plants as it is happening in France.

If land is scarce, production can be stacked as is being done in Japan. Vertical farms are also being developed to reduce labor and transport cost. Drones can monitor crop growth and even spray herbicides and pesticides. Robo-farming is expected to boost agriculture and food production.