In this survey article, the author argues why agriculture is ripe for transformation via technology, from the management of its various farm assets (such as machinery, plants/crops and livestock, and so on) to enabling new farming techniques, thereby encouraging sustainable practices. Kirkpatrick indicates that robotic harvesting in indoor farms has been very minimally adopted across traditional farmlands in the US. Furthermore, indoor farms are more suitable for produce such as vegetables, greens, and so on, and could yield ten times the production yields of outdoor farms, and far smaller costs for things such as pesticides, environmental impacts, and so on, thereby improving a farmer’s margins. And yet they are not widely adopted.

The article presents and discusses contactless agricultural options such as camera-based technologies, weed control solutions, drone-based solutions for tracking and data collection, and the use of commercial wireless networks with Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for soil monitoring and so on. It also discusses issues related to the availability of connectivity and alternate solutions for remote farms in other parts of the world.

In summary, this is a good overview of the technologies for transforming agricultural businesses to maximize yields, minimize environmental impacts, and improve margins on production.