Rusagro, Russia’s largest agricultural holding company, has sent unmanned combine harvesters to the fields. The new-generation smart equipment uses ‘brains’ supplied by the Russian developer Cognitive Technologies.
The smart machines will begin harvesting crops in the Belgorod Region this summer; the experience will later be extended to all of Rusagro’s farms, which use croplands exceeding 650K ha. In the next few years, all of its 800 harvesters will be equipped with autonomous control systems. This is the world’s first experience on this scale; the cost of introducing the innovation is about RUR 1 bln ($15.7 mio).
The company plans to return the investment by reducing the influence of the human factor: drones are capable of all-weather resource-saving operation, independent of sunlight. This should reduce grain losses during harvesting almost by half.
“Using unmanned combines, even not fully automated, adds 40% to the economic model – a real breakthrough for small farms where every penny counts,” President of Cognitive Technologies Olga Uskova noted. “Automated precision farming is a global trend now: identical requests are coming from New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, and Canada. The biggest problem for agricultural producers is to find experienced machine operators at the time of harvest.”
According to Olga Uskova, robotized farm equipment is the number one segment in the unmanned sector worldwide, mainly because farm equipment requires no special legal or legislative procedures, unlike vehicles moving on public roads. Secondly, the ratio between the cost of smart units and their economic effect speaks for itself.
Russia, just like Australia or New Zealand, has a low population density and challenging, even risky, conditions for farming. One of the biggest challenges is effective development of free land in regions where it is difficult for people to work. One of such regions is Siberia, in particular, the Tomsk Region, which Cognitive Technologies is using as a pilot region. Thanks to the regional governor’s support, unmanned combines have been put into service at four farms. A similar program has been adopted in Kurgan.
So far, an unmanned combine still requires the presence of an operator, who focuses on setting its parameters such as the threshing force, the reaper tilt and others – not on driving.
The market for artificial intelligence in agriculture is growing by more than 20% annually: by 2025, it is going to exceed $2.5 bln. Today, the United States is the leader accounting for 45% of the market, followed by Europe with a 25% share, China and India.