The next big challenge that agriculture faces in the 21st century comes from rapid urbanization. In 2008, for the first time in world history, the number of urban dwellers exceeded the number of rural dwellers and the trend looks likely to continue for the foreseeable future with 60 per cent of the world population expected to be urban dwellers by 2025. This has led to a sharp decrease in area under cultivation as well as the percentage of the labour force engaged in agricultural activities. While this problem has been offset to a large degree by increased productivity per hectare and per worker with the aid of agriculture technology (or ag-tech) and adoption of efficient farming practices, the continuing trend of urbanization has greatly increased the pressure on agricultural engineers to come up with new innovative ag tech solutions.

However, by far the greatest threat to agriculture and by extension, to food security in the 21st century is that of climate change. As climate and climate pattern shifts, traditional farming practices are becoming rapidly obsolete in meeting the demands of agriculture. Untimely rain and insufficient rain are becoming commonplace around the world destroying crops and decreasing productivity. Droughts have become a part of life for many regions and while the modern trade networks have helped prevent starvation to a large extent, Agflation or Inflation driven by high costs of agricultural products have become a great headache for many countries.

Finally, not all of the challenges that agriculture face is supply driven. Some such as the increased demand for an exotic/non-native agricultural product by the growing urban middle class is demand driven. Globalization along with with the rapidly growing health and wellness industries have altered dietary patterns that have withstood centuries of change and driven up demand for exotic food and food products. This has, in turn, created pressure on farmers to modify crops and crop patterns to compete with imported goods for this lucrative market. In turn, this has increased demand for innovative ag-tech solutions which can enable local farmers to grow these exotic food products within the region.

The only solution to all these problems is to produce innovative solutions which can dramatically increase productivity (both per hectare and per worker) and design ways to control environment so that crops can be allowed to grow in exotic regions as well as be protected from the travails of climate change.

Agricultural engineering is a complex field and deals with a huge variety of functions all critical for creating an efficient, productive and reliable farm that empowers the farmer to make the most of all the available resources. Some of the most important among them are:

Modern agriculture is almost synonymous with machines that accentuate the farmers’ abilities. They also help replace labour which has been lost due to rapid urbanization witnessed around the world over the last six decades. Agriculture machinery is designed to help with almost all functions associated with farming right from tilling to harvesting.

The importance of agricultural machinery is perhaps best described using the example of the combine harvester. The combine harvester three separate functions which together form the process of harvesting namely reaping, threshing and winnowing into a single process. All three of these processes are, if implemented without the harvester, highly labour intensive and as such using a combine harvester dramatically reduces the amount of labour required to complete the process of harvesting. Some of the other common agricultural machinery include tillers, seeding machines, milking machines and even tree shakers which can drastically reduce both the time and labour spent on agricultural activities.

Agricultural structures meanwhile are structures designed for agricultural practices which include storage for grains and other food products, equipment, animal supplies or feed. Having good storage facilities can be vital for farmers as those without any are easily bullied into selling at prices below the market rate before the produce spoil.

Increasingly cold storages are gaining popularity as they form the first stage of a well-run cold supply chain. Cold storages use refrigeration technologies to store produce at low temperatures. This sends all the bacteria into a dormant state / reduces their activity and dramatically increases the life of the produce, hence decreasing wastage and increasing efficiency. A well run cold chain may even allow farmers to tap lucrative markets far away from the source of production.

Agricultural resource management is perhaps the single most important factor in building modern farms and farming systems. Rapid urbanization has grown the urban population in such an exponential manner that, in developed countries, countrysides are becoming rare and many small towns are being abandoned. Jobs too are shifting, with job opportunities in Industrial and service sectors far exceeding those generated by the agricultural sector, exacerbating the migration towards urban, industrialized centres. This, in turn, has increased the responsibility on the farming communities tasked with feeding these urban centres with the ratio of food producers to consumers decreasing constantly. This has made running the farm more efficiently an imperative. The most important factor in running any farm in an efficient manner is the management of resources such as land, labour, power, and water.

Starting with the land, as the land under the till, so as to say, decreases, there has been a greater drive to get the most out per hectare of land. Land, overused or misused, for example, can have a negative impact on productivity and disturb the natural equilibrium. Hence it is not unusual to leave a piece of land fallow as it regains nutrients it lost. Agricultural engineers and ag-tech solutions can find a way around this problem by analyzing the nutrient contents in the soil and recommending crops which will not further deplete the nutrient content but still allow farmers to produce. This method is known as a crop—rotation. Furthermore, techniques such as vertical farming allow farmers to cultivate more per hectare and in the process dramatically increase yield per hectare. Vertical farming and associated technologies are expected to be vital for the future as farms themselves shift to urban areas where land will be at a premium.

As mentioned before, farms and food industry, in general, are plagued by wastage. This affects the sustainability of farms. The percentage of produce wasted can have a significant economic impact. Waste management entails three parts. First, all systems and processes are standardized and monitored continuously to prevent and minimize wastage. Secondly, by-products and wastes are sorted for reuse. This is of particular importance to farms as a large percentage of the waste produced by farms are of organic in nature. This means they can be biologically reprocessed through composting or other such means to be used as mulch for agricultural purposes. In addition waste gases produced during the process of composting such as can be captured and used for generating electricity and heat by a process known as cogeneration which can efficiently convert waste to energy. Some animal and plant by-products can even be converted into biofuel which can serve as an alternative fuel to fuel hungry agricultural machinery. The final part of waste management entails treatment of any remaining waste so that they can be safely disposed of without affecting the environment, especially the land and water resources which are crucial for the maintenance of agriculture.

Effective waste management goes a long way in ensuring that farms remain sustainable and efficient by plugging leakages and boosting productivity.

While the greatest scope for ag-tech solutions is in designing innovative agricultural machinery/structures and resource management, agricultural engineers do much more. Surveying and Land profiling, erosion control and soil management, climatology and atmospheric science, food engineering etc. all of which can find significant uses in modern farm and help create a more efficient, productive and sustainable farms.