Agriculture in the 21st century faces many challenges. It has to produce more food to meet an ever-growing population with fewer resources. The latest UN projections say that the world population will rise from 6.8 billion to 9.1 billion in 2050. To meet this demand, agricultural productivity will have to rise by at least 60%.

Ramping up production to that degree isn’t easy. As the population rises, demand for food and income increases. The increasing population coupled with limited water and arable land aggravate the challenges of agricultural production. To increase profit in a highly competitive and volatile environment, agro-companies, farmers and traders need to look into innovative approaches.

Over the years, automation has enabled the agricultural industry to better meet the increasing demand and manage their business more effectively while remaining competitive. Progress in technology has made it possible to handle repetitive tasks, thereby significantly increasing productivity and profit. Agro-based firms are looking for new ways to attain and maintain a competitive edge and boost their income.

Current challenges in the farming sector

Agro companies and people engaged in the agricultural sector constantly experience an enormous workload dealing with an almost endless number of processes. They need to control key processes and metrics such as monitoring livestock welfare, plant health, soil conditions, etc. They also need to keep track of finances and yields. Apart from that, they have to monitor logistics, have the latest transportation rate, exchange rate, monitor weather conditions, etc.

Traders who buy and sell agricultural products have to constantly monitor prices on various agro products and track their changes. They have to constantly contact suppliers and buyers, sometimes do follow-up which is time-intensive. Robotic Process Automation allows both farmers and traders to automate some of the repeated actions so that they can focus their energy and efforts on performing other main tasks that need special attention and skill. This will eventually lead to increased productivity, in turn, leads to more profit. 

What is Robotic Process Automation?

Robotic Process Automation is a type of business process automation that helps to automate the manual repetitive and routine tasks quickly, tirelessly, and accurately. RPA is the application of software and technology that mimic human interactions. In other words, it’s digital machine labor that replicates human cognitive functions and performs tasks accurately and efficiently.

The Benefits of Automating Farm Processes

The benefits farmers, growers, and traders receive when agricultural operations get automated through the use of different RPA software are immense. With Robotic Process Automation, stakeholders can reduce the production costs and management overheads by reducing manual labor. Using RPA, farmers and growers can efficiently automate farm management to better plan and predict outcomes, analyze pricing, monitor inventory, improve accounting, etc.

For example, RPA can be used to automate the order management process to increase process speed and reliability or automate finance processes to reduce operating costs and increase process efficiency. Robotic Process Automation also helps traders too. With RPA, traders can have the ability to immediate monitoring of the balance sheet and the availability of assets to sell. They can make sure prompt verification of crops, fields, livestock is carried out. RPA can also be used to monitor and analyze agricultural market and trade. Overall, it leads to faster management processes. 

The Advantages of Using Robotic Process Automation in the  Agriculture Industry

• Increased Quality: With RPA, stakeholders can significantly reduce errors and improve response time. RPA also leads to process stability by better handling of unstructured data.
• Improved scalability: RPA can deliver super-human capabilities and flexibility when it comes to automating a process, no matter how big or small the enterprise is. It can also reduce the man-power required to do a job.
• Proactive Risk Management: With robotic process automation, human errors in the agriculture process can be reduced to a minimum. It also creates enhanced data accuracy and agility.
• Improve human performance: Since routine, repetitive tasks are automated, human workers can focus on other high-value activities that require their undivided attention and skill.

The agricultural industry is constantly changing. To survive in a fiercely competitive environment, agricultural companies need to transform their business processes to increase output and productivity. Automating some of the farm processes will bring a competitive advantage to the agricultural sector. Using RPA to automate various agribusiness operations allows companies and farmers to cut down unnecessary expenses while increasing production and profit. RPA is all about simplifying complex agricultural processes that help to save time and improve overall operational efficiency. Moreover, a high level of planning and process control will allow farms to maximize profitability with fewer losses.