The Jan. 14, 2015 issue of the American Society of Agronomy’s Science Policy Report refers to two predictions that are worthy of attention from the agricultural sector.

Drone Revolution. Citing information in a Jan. 7, 2015 New York Times article, drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and supporting companies could generate almost $14 billion worth of economic activity in as little as 3 years from now. The article states that perhaps the biggest industry that is poised for drone use is farming. With the help of GPS mapping, drones can survey entire farms to find soil moisture and nutrient deficiencies and pest outbreaks, and send the exact coordinates of these problem areas back to a location that has the equipment or capacity to apply remedies.

The biggest obstacles to the rapid advent of drone use in agriculture are cost and safety. The perceived cost problem can likely be overcome by farmers hiring drone services for specific jobs. The safety factor will not be as easy to solve since the use of drones will add thousands of additional vehicles to an already crowded US air space.

Fortunately, the agricultural science component of US agriculture is already exploring how drones can be used to supplant previous methodology. The MSPB is currently supporting a project with objectives to evaluate the operational capabilities of UAVs for obtaining remote imagery data, and to evaluate data analysis components that are used to correlate these multispectral imagery data with soil properties and mapped yields.

Increased Global Demand for Animal Protein. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that there will be a 73% increase in meat and egg consumption and a 58% increase in dairy product consumption over 2011 levels by 2050. Most of this growth in consumption of these protein products will occur outside Europe and North America. Meeting this increased demand in a sustainable fashion will require a greater investment in animal science research, according to a report from the National Research Council.

Throughout this report, soybean is prominently mentioned as a source of protein that will be needed to support increased production of animal protein. Thus, increased soybean production in an environmentally sustainable manner will play a major role in achieving a sustainable, affordable, and secure supply of protein that will be needed to meet the above-mentioned increased demand for animal protein.

For the MSPB and Mississippi soybean producers, this provides increased impetus to support research and extension projects that foster the development and adoption of new technologies that will: 1) increase water use and irrigation efficiency; 2) provide genetic resistance to pests and nematodes in new varieties; 3) prolong the effectiveness and sustainable use of herbicides and pesticides; and 4) conserve soil and its water- and nutrient-supplying capacities.

Composed by Larry G. Heatherly, Jan. 2015, larryheatherly@bellsouth.net