Modern farmers find themselves at a crossroads of complex challenges: a projected global population growth that will require 70% more food production by 2050, shorter working hours, and consumer demand for sustainable products.
The growing need for higher-quality food produced with less manpower can be a burden. But agriculture, thanks to its historical flexibility in adopting innovations, has ingeniously created solutions that were not obvious at first sight – and agricultural technology is rapidly developing ways to overcome these problems.
New technologies are adapting the cross-functionality of compressed air to make farming more efficient and productive. From completely new compressor applications to new automatic air tools, agricultural technology has revolutionised the way compressed air helps farmers do their work.
01Drones and compressed air
One of the most exciting recent developments shows that air compression can eliminate manual labour from one of the most important – and most time-consuming – activities: growing crops. Agricultural drones, fully autonomously and using jets of compressed air, can sow seed and spread fertiliser and other nutrients into the soil from the air.
02Crop protection
To ensure crops ripen, farmers must protect them from disease and pests, and compressed air is used to spray fungicides and insecticides. Instead of treating each tree with hand pumps, farmers can use a compressor with hoses attached to save time, reduce manual labour and finish these important tasks faster. Simply load the compressor onto a vehicle, and with just one operator driving, a large number of trees can be sprayed in a short time.
