Precision agriculture – a farming management system which uses data and technology to improve crop yields and sustainability -- is a key part of NDSU’s Food, Energy and Water Security (FEWS) initiative. It’s a part that aligns perfectly into the expertise of Xin (Rex) Sun, NDSU associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering.
The use of precision agriculture in farming has steadily increased over the years. For example, a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) study released in December stated that guidance autosteering systems on tractors, combines and other farm equipment were used by 52 percent of midsize farms and 70 percent of large-scale crop farms in 2023; those rates were in the single digits in the early 2000s.
“Precision agriculture is the future of agriculture,” Sun said. “When you look back at the history of farming, it is amazing how human beings have revolutionized the way of farming and produced food to keep us from starving. For research, I believe we are in one of the best moments again to bring technology to the farming industry because of the computational revolution right now.”
Sun is part of the faculty in the NDSU agricultural and biosystems engineering (ABEN) department. ABEN is a multidisciplinary field that integrates principles of biology, engineering and technology to address critical issues related to food production, environmental sustainability and resource management.
As a student at North Dakota State from 2010-2012 (with a joint research appointment with Nanjing Agricultural University), Sun’s Ph.D. studies and research started him on the path of working in precision agriculture. During this time, he got hands-on experience with precision agriculture. His area of research? Meat.
“My research was using computer vision and machine learning methods to detect meat quality,” Sun said.
Later hired as a research scientist at NDSU in 2015, Sun became more involved in precision livestock research which included using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and imaging technology to detect beef cattle disease. In 2018, he was named an assistant professor at NDSU, and he expanded his precision agriculture research to crops, livestock and food sectors with the use of AI, robotic and remote-sensing technologies.
“I believe we need to react quickly and find the best technology that will benefit ag producers and make farming less costly, easier to operate, and less labor-intensive,” he said. “As researchers, I believe it is our duty to find innovative ways to help farmers solve their farming and ranching bottlenecks of daily operation while making a profit.”
Several examples of precision agriculture are currently used on farms, including global positioning systems (GPS), geographic information systems (GIS), auto-steer equipment, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and variable rate applications. Flying drones are also used by farm consulting firms to scout crops and livestock.
Sun’s precision ag team at NDSU uses AI, robotic and UAV technologies to help with weed management for farmers.
“Our team has collected over 20 million crop and weed different formats of imagery data to train and test our AI models to recognize the specific crop and weed species in the field,” he said. “Our goal is to use AI to recognize the weeds out of the different crop fields and treat them automatically, chemically and mechanically, without human interaction. Right now, we are proud to say we have established some amazing weed/crop algorithms, and currently we are in the stage of making some final products for farmers to test the technology.”
One of Sun’s students is doctoral graduate research assistant Arjun Upadhyay. He’s designed a weed sprayer that utilizes deep learning and machine vision for specific spot spraying.
“Working with Dr. Sun as my advisor has been a great experience for my academic and professional career,” said Upadhyay. “I never imagined the impact of robotics on sustainable farming until I became part of his group. Under his mentorship, I designed an intelligent weed sprayer that employs deep learning and machine vision on edge device for precise spot spraying. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Sun for shaping the foundation of my professional growth and empowering me to contribute to sustainable and technology driven agricultural solutions.”
The NDSU Food, Energy and Water Security initiative’s purpose is to “leverage transdisciplinary expertise, infrastructure and partnerships to spearhead solutions to critical challenges facing our stakeholders in the upper great plains” and Precision Ag, along with its future applications, fit into that purpose.
“Our region has always led in agricultural innovation—from the Three Sisters system to Bonanza farms, and from the skid steer to the quad-track tractor. This legacy drives us as we advance precision agriculture, which goes beyond variable rate technologies and autosteer,” said Frank Casey, associate director of the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station. “It’s a data-driven approach that unites experts to make precise, informed decisions. I see a future where management happens at the level of each individual plant.”
“For the FEWS initiative, I believe precision ag will play an important role in these areas, especially in the research domain,” Sun said. “The application usage of precision agricultural technologies is beyond imagination.” Sun noted examples including UAV technology used to detect water quality, tree lines and bridges of how precision ag will impact agriculture.
Sun also said precision agriculture’s impact will continue to grow and he believes in connecting NDSU researchers with precision ag and in attracting students to the discipline.
“We need to connect people with NDSU precision ag. We need to appreciate what we own here at NDSU and enlarge and activate the amazing talent people we have here,” Sun said. “A main reason I can conduct some cool projects in precision agriculture are the many great collaborators/mentors here at NDSU who give me the directions and advice to make my research more impactful.”
Source : ndsu.edu