STEEMCHURCH FARMS: HOW TECHNOLOGY HAS HELPED IMPROVE THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

This is my contribution to STEEMCHURCH FARMS: (@farms)

Farmer sector

The agricultural sector is an activity that is carried out to obtain raw materials of vegetable origin through the cultivation of the land. It is one of the most important economic activities in rural areas. The agricultural sector has evolved over time, going through several stages or phases, ranging from the Neolithic era, where these civilizations were inventing tools or tools to work the land and the use of some animals such as oxen and horses to plow and plow the Earth . Until the current times, where little by little, everything that has been left behind; Now we can see how technology has reached our fields, agricultural activities are carried out with tools, equipment and machinery, high technology influences in some way, the yields of crops and, of course, the profitability of them.

Technology in the agricultural production process

For the realization of any crop, it is necessary to carry out a series of practices, ranging from the determination of the climatic cycles, the selection of the seed until the harvest and commercialization, about this process I will speak to you next:

Agriculture, technology and climatic conditions

Previously, the agricultural producer carried out his crops taking into account the different times of the year, such as summer, autumn, winter and spring, where the field worker had to wait for the time corresponding to the crop of his preference, and he could often carry out a single crop in the year; but with the new technologies this little by little has been left behind, nowadays we can see large crops in protected areas, which we call: "The greenhouses", where any vegetable is grown in a closed and protected place, without taking account for external weather conditions.

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The production in greenhouses, is a technique that increasingly, is used by agricultural producers, this system consists of a closed, covered and conditioned to maintain an ideal temperature, according to the requirements of each item, also provides an advantage, and is that with this system, the plants are protected from the extreme inclemencies typical of the weather, which is when it is grown in the open field, where the plants are affected by the rains, strong winds, animal pests and diseases, which does not happen in the greenhouse , since, this allows to separate the crops with the external environment. A greenhouse is formed by a metallic or plastic structure covered by translucent materials to achieve the maximum luminosity in the interior. The greenhouses use automated systems with software designed to control and supervise remote processes, they also have some devices to automatically control the irrigation and fertilization systems, in addition to maintaining the appropriate temperatures inside the cabin. The greenhouse systems is a great technological alternative for the agricultural sector giving good yields in the production of the crops and in addition healthy products are obtained.

The quality of the seeds

The technology provides us with high quality seeds, which guarantee good yields, currently the farmer in the market has a large variety of certified and hybrid seeds, which have been previously treated in order to minimize losses in terms of time and costs of production in a crop. On the other hand, the function of the phyto-improvement of seeds, is one of the great contributions in agriculture, the seeds receive diverse treatments with chemical protective substances, such as fungicides and insecticides that protect them from pests and soil pathogens. Until now, the technology has progressed satisfactorily in the detection of the pathogens of the seeds that cause so much damage to the producers. as an example: nematodes and fungi such as: Aspergillus, Penicillium, Rizophus, Cladosporium, etc.

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Through many studies it has been determined that pathogens are lodged in the seeds resulting in infected plants, that is why the importance of obtaining healthy seeds, which guarantees good yields, and in this we must thank the scientific advances in this matter.

It is important to point out the technological advances for the production of seeds, as is the case of hybrid seeds. Hybrids are the crossing of two different varieties, which were selected especially because their children produce fruits of better quality and quantity than their parents, With this type of seeds, better yields are obtained in agricultural production, so we must consider that this technology greatly favors the agricultural producer.

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Land preparation with the use of agricultural machinery and equipment

Once we have obtained the seeds of good quality and free of any pathogen, it will be up to us to decide if the cultivation will take place in greenhouses or in the open field; suppose that it has been decided to establish the crop in the field, in this case, we proceed to prepare the land, performing the following practices: plowing the land with disc harrows, furrowing and direct sowing of seeds or by transplant, any of these two cases could be done with mechanical seeders or precision hydraulics.

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• Plow the land with an agricultural tractor: this consists of installing a harrow equipment to the agricultural tractor and proceed to give several passes until the earth is completely loose and free of clods. 50 years ago, there were very slow tractors and mechanical steering systems, and they took a long time to prepare the land, today there are modern tractors with hydraulic and traction systems of high technology, capable of doing a job quickly.

Tractor agricola y rastra:

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Grain seeder:

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Transplantation of seedlings:

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As we can see, these high-tech equipment saves time and labor, an example: with an agricultural tractor with a corn-grain planter, you can plant ten hectares in two days, which if done manually would have to hire many people and we would raise the costs.

Another of the practices in the production process of agricultural crops, is what refers to the irrigation system and fertilization:

• Irrigation systems: Irrigation systems were generally carried out through furrows, although they are still used in crops with few extensions, but over time new techniques have been appearing, which are looking for irrigation systems in that time and labor are saved, and on the other hand, that water can be controlled, supplying the crop with the amount required according to the type of crops and soil classes.

In this sense, technology has made good contributions to the agricultural sector, ensuring that the plant receives the necessary water for its life cycle, for this there are intermittent irrigation controlled by automatic devices.

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Agriculture by irrigation

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Central pivot irrigation

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Automated drip irrigation

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The fertilization of the crops: The traditional foliar fertilization have been carried out with manual back sprays,
but this form is already being displaced by the fertirrigation systems where the fertilizers are supplied through irrigation. There are other cases in which the fertilization is applied in foliar form with the agricultural tractor with the fumigation equipment.

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The harvest in a crop, can be done manually or with harvesting machines, everything depends on the type of crop and the quantities to be harvested; in the melon crops, the side is done manually, but there are crops such as sorghum, corn, wheat and sorghum, among others, the harvest is done with the harvester. as you can see in the following image:

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