Advanced technologies in agriculture. Innovation in agriculture trends and development forecasts

Global agriculture will face a number of constraints until 2050

How to feed ten billion people in the 21st century? A review of trends and some ways to solve the problems of providing the growing population of the Earth with food is presented by Gazeta.Ru together with the Institute of World Ideas.

The number of people in the world is growing by about 70-80 million people per year. Never before have so many people lived on the planet at the same time. If you look at agriculture and food supply, each person strives to increase consumption - accordingly, along with absolute consumption, relative consumption also increases due to population growth.

The question arises: “Will there be enough food to satisfy the growing appetites of a growing population, given that about 1 billion people are already hungry?”

Therefore, from a food point of view, the world faces a triple challenge in the 21st century: a) to feed the growing demand for food from a growing and richer population; b) do it in an environmentally sustainable way; c) cope with the problem of hunger.

World agriculture will face the following global constraints over the next 50 years.

1. Lack of available new land.

2. Change climatic conditions in traditional crop growing areas. Change temperature regime and precipitation regime.

3. Soil degradation.

4. Growing regional freshwater deficit.

5. Decrease in the rate of yield growth even with an increase in the volume of fertilizers.

6. Increased dependence on fossil fuels (logistics, raw materials).

7. Lack of new fish resources.

8. Population growth.

9. Dietary transition due to increased prosperity.

In the past, the main ways to combat food shortages were through agricultural development of new land and the use of new fish stocks.

However, over the past five decades, while grain production has more than doubled, the amount of land devoted to arable farming worldwide has increased by only a few percent.

Of course, some new land could be brought into cultivation, but competition for land from other human activities makes this an increasingly unlikely and costly solution, especially with greater emphasis on biodiversity conservation. In recent decades, certain agricultural areas that were previously productive have been lost due to urbanization and other human activities, as well as due to desertification, salinization, soil erosion and other consequences of unsustainable land use. Further losses are likely, which could be exacerbated by climate change. The production of first-generation biofuels on quality agricultural land also puts competitive pressure on food production. Freshwater scarcity is already causing significant problems in China and India. Human influence on the nitrogen and phosphate cycles has disrupted the natural systems for recycling these elements - this influence will not weaken, since fertilizers are responsible for half of the crop, and the use of fertilizers will only increase.

However, in more detail about the limits of agriculture in the 21st century, with an emphasis on fresh water, nutrients and hydrocarbons, Gazeta.Ru reported in the article “Traps of Fresh Water and Acid Rain.”

Accordingly, at the global level in the 21st century large quantity food would need to be produced on the same amount of land (or even less land). Recent studies of future demand show that the world will need 70-100% more food by 2050.

It is obvious that humanity will actively solve these problems in the coming decades. For different countries there will be different difficulties. For example, in China, the main challenge for agriculture will be the rapid dietary transition due to rising incomes: the transition from a predominantly vegetarian diet to a diet containing a large proportion of meat products requires a several-fold increase in the use of nutrients, fresh water, soils, etc., which significantly will increase the burden on agriculture and have a Negative influence on the environment. For African countries other problems are typical - low yields and the negative impact of expanding acreage on the environment (deforestation and desertification).

In Russia the problems are of a completely different nature. We depend on food imports, the country does not provide itself with meat products - accordingly, Russia is dependent on international markets meat products, which is an unsustainable long-term strategy.

Each region can have its own problems, but if we consider agriculture as a single global industry over a long period of time, then the limits and trends listed at the beginning of this article will play a crucial role, although global agricultural problems will be solved locally.

Below is an overview of trends and some ways to solve the emerging problems of providing food to a growing population. These solutions are the scientific and practical mainstream. But it is far from certain that these solutions, even if implemented, will be able to improve the situation and not drive it into an even greater dead end.

Method 1: Increasing yields using traditional practices

There are significant differences in crop and livestock productivity even in regions with similar climates. The difference between actual productivity and the best productivity that can be achieved using current genetic material, available technology and management is called the “yield gap”. Achieving the best local yields depends on the ability of farmers/peasants to access and use seeds, water, nutrients, soil, soil pest control, benefits from biodiversity, and also depends on access to advanced knowledge and management systems.

Closing yield gaps could dramatically increase food supplies, but also strengthen Negative consequences environmental impacts, such as greenhouse gas emissions (especially methane and nitrous oxide, which have a higher Greenhouse effect than CO2 and which are largely produced by agriculture), soil erosion, depletion of fresh water horizons, increased eutrophication, destruction of biodiversity due to the conversion of land to agricultural use.

Method 2: Increasing food production using genetic modification

Today, the speed and cost of sequencing and resequencing genomes is such that improved breeding and genetic modification techniques can be easily applied to the development of crop varieties that produce high yields even under challenging conditions. This primarily applies to crops such as sorghum, millet, cassava, and banana, which are staple foods for many of the world's poorest communities.

Today, genetic modification is used mainly in the production of soybeans (70% of the total area under the crop), cotton (49%), corn (26%), canola/canola (21%). The area under GM crops accounts for 9% of the world's crop area, mainly in the USA, Brazil, Argentina, India, Canada and China. According to Sygenta, about 90% of farmers growing GM seeds are farmers in developing countries, mainly cotton farmers.

Currently, the main commercial genetically modified crops are created by relatively simple manipulations, such as introducing a herbicide resistance gene or a gene to produce a toxin against insect pests. The next decade is likely to see the development of combinations of desirable traits and the introduction of new traits, such as drought tolerance. By mid-century, much more radical options may be possible.

EXAMPLES OF EXISTING AND POTENTIAL FUTURE APPLICATIONS OF GM TECHNOLOGIES FOR GENETIC IMPROVEMENT OF CROPS. SOURCE: SCIENCE

Currently	Tolerance to broad spectrum herbicides	Corn, soybeans, cabbage oilseeds
	Resistance to chewing insect pests	Corn, cotton, cabbage oilseeds
Short term (5-10 years)	Nutritional Strengthening	Main grains, sweet potatoes
	Resistance to fungus and viral pathogens	Potatoes, wheat, rice, bananas, fruits, vegetables
	Resistance to sucking insect pests	Rice, fruits, vegetables
	Improved processing and storage	Wheat, potatoes, fruits, vegetables
	Drought resistance
Medium term (10-20 years)	Tolerance to excess salt	Common grains and roots
	Increasing nitrogen use efficiency	Common grains and roots
	Resistant to high temperatures	Common grains and roots
Long term(more than 20 years)	Apomixis	Common grains and roots
	Nitrogen fixation	Common grains and roots
	Production and denitrification	Common grains and roots
	Transition to perennialism	Common grains and roots
	Increased photosynthetic efficiency	Common grains and roots Read in full: http://www.gazeta.ru/science/2012/04/28_a_4566861.shtml

Most likely, in pursuit of the goal of increasing yields in a limited area while simultaneously being resilient to climate change, humanity will actively use the genetic transformation of plants.

For example, Bill Gates is already investing in Monsanto (this company, founded in 1901 as a purely chemical company, has now evolved into a concern specializing in high technology in agriculture; the main products currently are genetically modified corn and soybean seeds , cotton and the world's most widely used herbicide, Roundup). Gates believes that genetically modified plants will save the world from hunger.

Although there are many arguments against the widespread use of GM products. Since genetic modifications involve changes to the germ line of an organism and its introduction into the environment and food chain, the problem with GM technology is that the long-term effects of genetically modified crops on the human body, the environment, and biodiversity are unknown. This is why there is significant and completely understandable resistance to genetically modified products, especially in countries such as India, where the huge population and growing demand from the growing middle class makes it necessary to look for such radical ways as GM technologies to provide the population with food. Suman Sahai, professor of genetics and recipient of the Norman Borlaug Award for Excellence in Agriculture and the Environment, notes in the article “Why is there distrust of GM foods” that the production of GM seeds is controlled by only six companies in the world, which causes a significant shortage open information and a corresponding lack of trust from consumers, regulators and non-profit organizations.

Method 3: Reduce waste

To the question “what needs to be done to provide 10 billion people with food,” Ida Kubiszewski, a professor at the University of Portland and managing editor of The Solutions magazine, reasonably answers that today the world produces an absolutely sufficient amount of food, but only about 30% up to 50% food products is wasted in both developed and developing countries, although for very different reasons.

In developing countries, losses are mainly due to the lack of infrastructure in the production chain, such as technologies for storing produced food on farms, during transportation, during storage before sale. Huge losses during storage are common in developing countries, such as India, where 35-40% of fresh produce is lost because wholesale, nor retail outlets are equipped with refrigeration equipment.

IN South-East Asia There is significant loss even of rice, which can be stored without special equipment. As a result, after harvesting, up to a third of the crop is lost due to pests and spoilage.

IN developed countries losses before the retail stage are much lower, but losses arising at the stages of retail trade, public catering and individual consumption are significant. For example, consumers are accustomed to buying products that look cosmetically good - hence, retailers throw away a lot of edible but slightly damaged products. Food is also relatively cheap for consumers in developed countries, reducing incentives to reduce waste.

Structure of agricultural waste in developed and developing countries

Accordingly, one of the main strategies for sufficient food supply for humanity will be to reduce losses throughout the entire production and consumer chain. At the same time, food waste will be more widely used in agriculture for fattening livestock, since it is necessary to reduce the load of livestock farming on arable land, and also as fertilizer, since such use does not require direct use inexhaustible resources and additional significant energy costs (except for transportation).

Method 4: Changing your diet

The efficiency of converting plant energy into animal energy is about 10%, so more people could feed on the same amount of land if they became vegetarians. Currently, about one-third of global grain production is used to feed livestock, and one of the main drivers of increasing pressure on the food system is the rapidly growing demand for meat and dairy products. Demand is growing as a result general development, which is accompanied by an increase in income of the population.

The surprising feedback is that global population will continue to grow until a likely plateau of 9-10 billion people is reached by 2050.

The main factor in slowing the rate of population growth, and, accordingly, the means of combating hunger, is the elimination of illiteracy. It also leads to increased well-being and income growth, and with higher purchasing power comes more high level consumption, as well as increased demand for processed foods, meat, dairy products and fish. As a result, this trend to combat hunger in the long term only adds stress to the food supply system. Growing demand has led over the past 50 years to a 1.5-fold increase in the number of cattle, sheep and goats in the world, as well as a 2.5- and 4.5-fold increase in the number of pigs and chickens, respectively. A new round of this growth in the coming decades will be triggered by an increase in the prosperity and size of the middle class in countries such as China and India.

Reducing meat consumption has other benefits besides feeding more people.

Well-balanced diets rich in grains and other foods plant origin, are considered healthier than those containing a high proportion of meat and dairy products. But breaking current trends and switching to plant-based diets in the medium term is impossible. The command-driven and centralized approaches that can be used to change diets, even if they work in individual countries, cannot be implemented on a global scale. Only through long-term cultural change is it possible to achieve a “reverse dietary transition” from higher-calorie, animal-dominated diets to plant-based diets. It is absolutely clear that the process of such a transition will take more than one generation (if you do not take into account unpredictable events that can significantly accelerate the transition, for example, possible epidemics of livestock diseases such as rabies).

Method 5. Expansion of aquaculture

Fish, shellfish and crustaceans play an important role in the food system, providing approximately 15% of the animal protein consumed by humans. Peter Drucker, one of the founders of management as a science, suggested in his book The Age of Discontinuity that industries related to the world's oceans, in particular fisheries, will be the basis of human activity in the 21st century.

Today we can already say that Drucker was wrong, at least with fishing.

Since 1990, approximately a quarter of wild fisheries have been seriously overfished, with some fish stocks being completely depleted. Typical example: Last year, a bluefin tuna carcass was sold at auction in Japan for $730,000 - the cost of one roll of this fish was more than $100. Of course, some people may say that it is “very high status” to eat such expensive products. We can say that the cost of one fish has become this way because there are no more bluefin tuna left in the ocean.

It is due to overfishing and depletion of wild fish resources that the world will switch to aquaculture in the future. Aquaculture is now growing rapidly in Southeast Asia, where labor is cheap and favorable climate contribute to this growth rate. Extending this experience to regions such as Africa could be of great benefit in solving the problem of hunger.

In the future, aquaculture could achieve even greater productivity through improved selection of products grown, larger production scales, open water and large inland aquaculture, and the cultivation of a wider range of species.

Greater choice of production conditions (tolerance of temperature and salinity fluctuations, disease resistance) and cheaper feeds (e.g., plant materials with increased nutritional value) may become available using GM technologies, but problems associated with the long-term impact of GM will need to be addressed. technologies on the fish body, humans and the environment in general. Aquaculture can be harmful environment, firstly, due to the release of organic waste or medicinal chemicals into water bodies, and secondly, as a source of diseases or genetic pollution wild species.

New technologies may be a dead end

Despite the wide range of technological possibilities, new technologies from the point of view of energy costs will most likely turn out to be a dead-end branch of agricultural development. If we systematically consider the process of creation, development, implementation and use of new technologies from a cost point of view, then today much more energy is spent on food production than we receive in return. This was not always the case, and it is obvious that “traditional” agriculture is much more advantageous from this point of view.

It is easier to explain this statement using the example of oil production. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was necessary to spend 1 barrel of oil to produce 100 barrels of oil. The EROI (Energy Return on Investments) ratio was 1:100. Today it is about 1:15, and shale gas production technologies will reduce it to 1:2-3. Similar trends are developing in agriculture. Whereas traditional agriculture used 1 kilocalorie of energy to produce 5 to 10 kilocalories of energy contained in a food product, today it takes 10 or more (up to 500) kilocalories of energy to produce 1 kilocalorie of food (see chart).

It’s clear about non-renewable resources. When a readily available resource is depleted, the cost of extracting the less accessible resource increases, and the EROI ratio, in turn, decreases. In the case of agriculture, with a growing population and growing demand, any departure from natural, and therefore “free” resources (natural provision fresh water, soil productivity, biodiversity) significantly reduces EROI and similar coefficients.

Take aquaculture for example. In the case of natural sea fishing for wild species, the main costs are directed towards catching fish - there are no costs for feeding the fish, since the fish feed in the open ocean. Today, aquaculture needs to be grown, fed, and treated. For this you need work force, territory, equipment and much, much more. This accordingly increases resource costs, and the grown fish, in principle, has less energy value.

Now let's take latest projects construction of super-efficient vertical farms in megacities. It is obvious that these projects have exorbitant resource and energy efficiency coefficients; approximately more than 500 kilocalories are spent in these projects to obtain one kilocalorie.

Separately, it is worth noting the important economic consequences of the development of such trends. In traditional economics, the cost of a product never included the “cost of a resource.” There is no such thing as “resource cost” at all. For example, the cost of a barrel of oil is determined only by the costs of production, labor, transportation, rental of offices, tanks and other similar costs. The very volume of oil contained in the rock has always been and is considered free. But today, when we no longer have enough traditional resources, a “resource replacement cost” appears. The emergence of a replacement cost makes new technologies, when compared with traditional technologies based on a free resource, economically unprofitable.

Accordingly, humanity is switching to more costly and less efficient methods of obtaining energy and food.

The reason is clear: to develop and replicate new technologies, it is necessary to expend a huge amount of effort, time, and energy. Personnel costs, new construction and other activities significantly increase energy costs. Accordingly, the risks of declining and negative ratios similar to EROI must be financed by someone. In the case of agriculture, they are funded by governments that subsidize the industry and international organizations that provide financial assistance to those in need. This leads to a situation where humanity is and will continue to spend money on maintaining an absolutely ineffective production system, agriculture in particular.

That is why, with the depletion of non-renewable resources and the use of renewable resources beyond the limits of natural balances, the world enters “dangerous territory”, which at first will at least be characterized by an increase in the price of all types of resources, and ultimately can lead to catastrophic situations.

For sustainable food production in a strategic perspective, agriculture, as an industry that operates on natural renewable resources and geochemical cycles (soil, nitrogen, fresh water, carbon, phosphorus), will have to return to using resources at levels no greater than what is possible in the natural cycle . Otherwise, we will have (and in fact already have) production that is absolutely inefficient in terms of resource and energy consumption, since we spend more than we receive. In the long term, this strategy does not work.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, it doesn't exist simple solutions on the issue sustainable provision food for 9 billion people, especially with the general increase in prosperity and the transition of a large part of the population to the mode of consumption characteristic of rich countries. Growing food production will be really important, but it will be more limited than ever by the finite resources of the land, oceans and atmosphere, and will also need to take into account climate change, increasing pollution, growing populations, changing diets and the impact of food on human health.

It is obvious that changes in agriculture in the 21st century will be no less - rather more radical - than the changes that occurred during the “green revolution” in the 20th century.

Setting goals and developing these changes will be one of the main tasks of science in the 21st century. But hopes for future scientific and technological innovations in food supply cannot be an excuse for postponing difficult decisions that are needed today, and any optimism must be tempered by the enormity of the challenges.

With a billion hungry people in the world, it is necessary to think outside the box.

When preparing the article, materials from Science, The Solutions, books and articles by Vaclav Smil, “Limits to Growth. 30 years later”, reports FAO, The International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA), Water Resource Group, UN Water.

The study of global trends in technology development and evaluation of exhibits at international exhibitions indicate that up to 80% of the developments that have received maximum development in recent years, despite the crisis, are associated with intelligent solutions based on the use of information technology. The strategic vector of innovative development of agricultural production is associated with the widespread use of information technologies, electronics, and automated systems. The intellectual basis for this is the fundamental innovative solutions in other areas and industries, which are also successfully used in agriculture.

In crop production, precise, precision, or smart farming (Smart Farming) is formed and implemented. It involves managing the productivity of land, crops, labor and financial resources, and the formation of optimal logistics taking into account market conditions. Electronic maps of fields are created, information databases are formed for each field, including area, yield, agrochemical and agrophysical properties (normative and actual), state of plants in the corresponding phases of the growing season, etc. Software for analysis and acceptance is developed management decisions, as well as sending commands to chip cards that are loaded into robotic devices and agricultural units for differentiated agricultural operations.

In livestock farming, unified methods and means of animal identification are used as the intellectual basis of a long-term strategy for the organizational and structural development of a farm, complex, and industry as a whole.

As an example, it is advisable to cite the work of the PigWatc system, which implements innovative technology for managing artificial insemination of pigs.

Three infrared sensor monitor the behavior of the sow 24 hours a day, all seven days of the week. The observation device is installed directly above the sow in an individual pen. All important information can be read at any time on the LED display, for example regarding emptying, insemination status or the need for insemination. The core of this system is a powerful computer that continuously analyzes incoming information about animal behavior in real time, comparing the results obtained with the original data. Based on these calculations, it is determined exact time artificial insemination of each sow separately. All information on the course of sexual heat is displayed on a connected PC or laptop in the form of accessible diagrams.

In the processing of agricultural products, the most advanced technology is the technology of contactless reading of information from objects and storing REID (Radio Frequency Identification) data, as well as automated production planning and management systems in conditions of rapid changes in volumes and assortment.

Particularly popular is the effective development of the Russian Dairy Machines Design Bureau - an automated control system for technological processes at a milk processing plant.

Based on the technological log and time schedule of equipment operation, the software creates an operation diagram and process protocol, displaying the specified parameters and the sequence of interactions of both individual pieces of equipment and entire production sections.

In the technical service of agricultural machinery, a system for remote monitoring of the state of transport equipment in the agro-industrial complex is successfully functioning. It was developed by GNU GOSNITI based on the Outrak remote diagnostic system. Signals about the status of the MTP are transmitted via mobile communications to the TELEMATIC5 web server, equipped with a software and hardware complex from the Global Automation Systems (GLOSAV) company with the Agroprom industry application.

The effectiveness of the development of the agro-industrial complex is largely determined by the availability of tools and knowledge management technology obtained on the basis of many years of experience in agricultural production. The intuition of individual representatives of the industry and the large amount of know-how created throughout the world over many years of work are of extreme value for the further development of agriculture. The urgent task is to transform tacit knowledge obtained experimentally into explicit knowledge, recording scientific results, which will ultimately improve the quality and efficiency of agricultural and food production. It is advisable to improve communications and exchange of information and knowledge between experts and agricultural producers. The use of cloud computing is of particular practical interest and has significant prospects, which are successfully used in various fields and have a number of advantages: cost reduction; distribution of information resources on demand, without restrictions; Maintenance and update software, running in the background; rapid innovative development, including collaboration with other systems in the cloud; Great opportunities for global development of the services provided.

The cycle of work performed in the process of agricultural production with active support of the cloud service includes four main stages: production and operation planning; execution of work; monitoring and evaluation of results; adjustment of plans.

For each specific agricultural producer, a cloud service is an innovation that allows solving specific, pressing problems:

• production planning, sales, purchasing;
• operational management of production and sales based on automation of collection, receipt and analysis of information;
• communication support with experts (consultants), instruction and timely provision of guidance based on queries to databases;
• management of all types of data related to the cultivated land, including location, land rights, field maps, etc.

In the WTO conditions such economic indicators, like profit, the level of profitability of production, make it possible to assess the effectiveness of a single agricultural enterprise or industry. The ultimate goal of introducing new information technologies is to maximize indicators. The following mechanisms contribute to achieving this goal:

• Modeling production process(drawing up agrotechnological maps, production and business plans and documents based on knowledge management).
• Assessing the risks for each piece of land, calculating costs and benefits, collecting information and sending data to a 3G server using mobile phones with GPS barcode reading function.
• Accounting for cultivated land, using and updating databases with information for each land plot (land rights, site characteristics, soil analysis results, production history, etc.).

Receiving information from the cloud service in accordance with professional profile and individual data, real-time information is transmitted to agricultural producers depending on their geographic location, type of crops cultivated, and weather in their region. Information is provided on methods for identifying pests that can destroy crops. In addition, the cloud-based system can provide information with recommendations on the stages of agricultural work, assist in calculating costs and provide the opportunity to become familiar with approved regulations in a particular region. For producers exporting their goods, the cloud will report prices for products on agricultural markets and help in making decisions: sell their crops or wait best prices on the world market.

Schematically, the sequence of collecting, storing and analyzing information can be represented in five stages: data collection - storage - visualization - analysis - instruction. Implementation full cycle data processing will provide industry workers with relevant, timely, reliable information to improve the efficiency of production and sales of products.

The use of cloud computing allows you to flexibly link together various systems industry, can become one of the fundamental approaches in innovative development and integrate whole Information Systems:

• business management system;
• system for execution financial analysis and filing tax returns with the support of tax consultants;
• production history monitoring system, which provides tracking of food movement records, which is safer and more reliable;
• a system of agricultural practices and operational support that effectively manages the safety and quality of agricultural products while maintaining proper levels of farm performance.

The cloud service allows you to provide technical support to millions of users by simply making changes and additions to the program on one system in the center of the cloud. Moreover, in cloud computing there is no difference in the version of software used by different users, resulting in increased usability in addition to reduced operating costs. The benefits of virtualization include optimizing management, increasing data storage security, reducing operating costs, and increasing staff efficiency, which leads to significant savings in time and financial costs.

It becomes practical to connect core authentication and billing functions to process and intelligently analyze GPS data, mapping images, speech and other information, allowing the entire production process to be optimized and executed daily based on accurate and verified data.

Weather information and soil data, GPS data, worker observations, land plots can be used to obtain advice and recommendations based on the analysis of this stored data, the formation and development of a knowledge system stored in the cloud.

The process of accumulating and sharing knowledge in the agricultural sector leads to an improvement in overall production efficiency. Agriculture is a generator large quantity knowledge and technology and must be ready for further innovative development and improvement. Cloud computing can support this process. The cloud computing mechanism purposefully solves the problem of transferring knowledge to working agricultural producers and subsequent generations of agricultural workers.

Thus, to ensure the implementation of the tasks and parameters defined State program development of agriculture and regulation of markets for agricultural products, raw materials and food for 2013-2020, it is necessary to intensify work in this direction. They are the intellectual basis for the formation of the fourth and fifth technological structures in Russian agricultural production.

Based on the materials of the article: Fedosenko, V.F. Information Technology in agricultural production / V.F. Fedosenko. - Scientific and technological progress in agricultural production: materials of the International. scientific-technical conf. (Minsk, October 22-23, 2014). In 3 volumes. T. 1. - Minsk: NPC NAS of Belarus for agricultural mechanization, 2014. - 257 p.

Thus, for many Russian enterprises, the use of innovations is becoming an important strategic direction of development. The same applies to agriculture and the entire agro-industrial complex. The Rostov region is an agricultural region of the country and one of the leaders in gross agricultural production, therefore the issue of strategic use of investments in the entire technological cycle is very relevant for enterprises in the region.

IN modern economy the role of innovation has increased significantly. Without the use of innovation, it is almost impossible to create competitive products. Innovation represents effective remedy competition, as they lead to the creation of new needs, to a reduction in production costs, to an influx of investment, to an increase in the image of the manufacturer of new products, to the opening and capture of new markets, internal and external.

Thus, for many Russian enterprises, the use of innovations is becoming an important strategic direction of development. The same applies to agriculture and the entire agro-industrial complex. The Rostov region is an agricultural region of the country and one of the leaders in gross agricultural production, therefore the issue of strategic use of innovations in the entire technological cycle is very relevant for enterprises in the region.

Thus, enterprises are encouraged to introduce various innovative approaches to planting seeds, cultivating and watering the soil, and harvesting.

Such an innovative approach is varietal mosaic - one of effective ways grain production with maximum profit, it allows you to sow a set of zoned varieties that complement each other, regardless of which breeding center created them. It is recommended to grow at least five to seven main production varieties, plus propagate new and promising ones. The main thing is to follow the rule: one variety should not occupy more than fifteen percent of the total area wheat crops on the farm. The right mixture of varieties, a combination of species and the correct change of crops are superior in effect to all the best pesticides.

The company’s agronomists, who have extensive experience working with various crops and varieties, must determine which barley varieties need to be planted.

To test this innovative technology, it is proposed to allocate an experimental field to compare the yield of traditional and new methods of sowing crops.

There are no costs required to implement this innovation. The only necessary activity is the preparation by agronomists of the required set of barley varieties, taking into account climatic features terrain.

As a result of the use of varietal mosaic, it is expected that the yield will increase by 20-25%.

Another measure could be comprehensive mechanization and automation of production. When it comes to innovation, people primarily talk about equipment and machines, since the quality of work of many enterprises depends on this, and it is outdated equipment that hinders the development and improvement of production. You can also pay attention to the introduction of innovations in other areas, such as, for example, irrigation, fertilizer, planting and cultivation technology.

Currently, many foreign and domestic agricultural enterprises use modern agricultural machinery equipped with navigation systems that use GPS satellite signals for their operation and can improve the efficiency of using equipment, especially wide-cut ones. This approach to farming is called “precision farming.”

The use of this equipment will allow you to reach a fundamentally new level of productivity.

One of the main reasons for using GPS navigation in agriculture is simple optimization: the more accurately you sow, cultivate the land, and harvest, the higher the indicators and, accordingly, the income will be. Thanks to the ability to accurately set the trajectory, it is easier for the machine operator to work in the fields, because he will not miss any areas. A person is not a robot and cannot control equipment with centimeter precision, but with the use of GPS navigation on tractors this is quite possible. And when installing a navigator together with a hydraulic autopilot on a tractor, it is theoretically possible to do without the work of a tractor driver at all, since the machine will be able to work itself. But in practice, someone must sit in the cab of the car to control all processes.

In recent years, navigation technologies in agriculture have made a giant leap; direction indicators, thrusters, autopilot systems, agricultural navigators and complex navigation systems are on the market. These devices can be equipped with tractors, combines, sprayers, and seeding systems. And they can accordingly be used for various operations such as sowing, cultivating, spraying and fertilizing.

The installation of such navigation systems provides a huge number of advantages to agricultural producers; with their help, the opportunity opens up:

carry out parallel driving along straight and curved lines;

reduce the width of the headland and the idling length of the unit;

eliminate flaws, reduce the loss of time and fuel and lubricants for eliminating machine operator errors;

increase labor productivity;

reduce costs for seeds and fertilizers;

perform work at night and in poor visibility conditions;

carry out more accurate field spraying from an airplane;

reduce the cost of processing a hectare;

reduce the cost of finished products.

Bibliography

1. Informational portal Agro-sputnik [Electronic resource]/ Will investments save agriculture? – Access mode: http://www.agro-sputnik.ru/index.php/news/184-spasut-li-innovacii free. - Cap. from the screen. - (date of access 02/18/2016)

2. Ushachev I.G. Internal economic relations in agricultural enterprises of the agro-industrial complex: economics and management. 2004. No. 5. P. 3-12.

3. Geocourse [Electronic resource]/ Parallel driving systems. – Access mode: http://agrogps.kz/, free. - Cap. from the screen.- (date of access: 02/18/2016)

Technical means to increase labor productivity, used in agriculture to mechanize operations and technological processes. For each type of work there are various types of equipment. Modern agricultural machinery for harvesting is divided into several types. Equipment for cultivating and preparing soil, equipment for directly caring for the crop, and equipment for collecting fodder products.

Modern agricultural machinery - classification and types of equipment

Pre-sowing tillage - machine and tractor units (plow, plough, roller, harrow). Sowing work - machine-tractor units (planting machines and seeders). Care of crops is carried out using such technical means as a hiller, crop thinner, weeder, pruning machines, etc. Watering and irrigation: long-distance rain machine, two-cantilever rain machine, stationary and vehicles on a vehicle chassis. Fertilizer application: subsurface and surface application, solid spreaders and liquid spreaders organic fertilizers. Harvesting equipment – ​​and machine and tractor equipment (row reaper, mower, etc.). Post-harvest processing of raw materials is carried out using grain cleaners, grain throwing machines and loaders. There is also a technique for cultivating certain crops such as tea, flax, cotton, beets, grapes, hops, etc. Often, to service large fields, auxiliary equipment is used to provide water supply - canal diggers, sewer cleaners, drainage machines and machines for washing drainage systems.

Nowadays physical work It is also facilitated by the use of modern agricultural machinery with space navigation systems. Which make it possible to carry out high-quality plowing, divided into two groups: autopilot systems and parallel driving systems. In the latter case, a GPS navigator (Global Positioning System) is installed on the tractor, which allows you to monitor deviations from the trajectory of movement on the plowed object. The autopilot system allows the worker to spend less effort and pay more attention to himself technological process and its quality. This is accomplished by installing an electro-hydraulic automatic control system on the tractor, in which the tractor driver participates in the control process only when turning. Such devices allow you to reduce the cost of working time, fuel used, mineral fertilizers and plant protection products.

Operation of modern agricultural machinery

The use of modern agricultural machinery refers to precision farming. Since the distribution of light, moisture and other factors affecting the yield is not uniform within one field, plants in different areas should be cared for differently. The challenge of precision farming lies precisely in this: by using navigation devices and satellite images of the site, more accurate crop planning becomes possible, financial planning, optimization of fertilization or spraying.

In agriculture, small aircraft are often used for spraying and spraying pest control products. This processing method has a number of advantages over conventional land-based methods: increased productivity, which includes a reduction in processing time large territories. The use of small aircraft makes it possible to feed crops late without damaging the plants, unlike ground-based devices. Pest control is more effective. Thus, using similar technical means the quality of crops produced can be significantly improved. There are also a number of disadvantages, such as dependence on weather conditions, the possibility of drugs getting into neighboring crops and high cost.

Modern agricultural machinery is an indispensable assistant in the agricultural industry

Manual labor when processing large sowing areas has long been outdated; moreover, many technical means have undergone a number of updates, and new types of equipment have appeared. The hard work of workers becomes easier with the passage of time. Machines sometimes replace a whole team of workers, and Newest technologies allow analysis of territorial, climatic and economic features without the help of many experts. Nowadays, data received from satellites provides a complete overview of all areas, which facilitates the selection of technical means and other necessary calculations. Farming methods are changing rapidly, making it possible to improve the quality of products. In the modern world, technical means and machine production are simply necessary in all sectors of consumption due to the ever-growing appetites of the population, and here modern agricultural machinery comes to the rescue.

Agriculture provides people with many aspects of life, and its development is an integral part of progress. The life activity of mankind, its numbers and successful development largely depend on the process of modernization of agriculture, therefore the introduction of the latest devices and mechanisms is a natural process.