Hello Tractors promoting mechanization.

Mechanization is an essential tool for success in agribusiness as it improves productivity and profits farmers. Farmers need to embrace the role of farm machinery if they are to be successful,but many small scale farmers are yet to imbibe the emerging farming technologies and machinery. Factors, such as the high cost of machines and farmers’ lack of access to finance, make the machinery unaffordable for resource-poor farmers,but hello tractors is promoting mechanization by assisting farmers with needed tractors. Nigeria has one of the largest expanse of uncultivated farmland and with more than half of the population linked to farmers, many of which lack the technology to turn their land into a highly productive asset. 4% of the country’s demand for tractors is being met, leading farmers to under cultivate, plant late and lose profit. Hello tractors created a model of operation which is efficient and cost effect for the farmers. Hello tractors model is instead of giving a farmer a grant to buy one tractor, you make a smart investment into their platform that can deliver a sizable amount of impact for a fairly small amount of money. They also engage local banks and further leveraging the investment to amplify impact. Hello Tractor created a Smart Tractor that is low-cost, versatile and designed specifically for small plots of land. Retrofitted with telematix and GPS, the tractors are also trackable so operators can know their exact location. The company sells the Smart Tractor to individuals who can deliver the tractors when farmers text into Hello Tractor’s virtual cloud. Hello Tractor then pings the service provider and the machine is delivered in less than two weeks. With this highly efficient scheme, Hello Tractor provides a service that is 40 times faster than manual labour and 1/3 the cost. To make sure the To make sure the tractors are community-led and community-owned, the company pairs this innovative technology with innovative financing, working with banks and investors to support farmers becoming tractor owners themselves. As such, the Smart Tractors become a means of improving livelihoods for everyone involved — the farmers and the tractor owners.

FG to procure 10,000 tractors for agric mechanisation.

FG to procure 10,000 tractors for agric mechanisation. Nigeria's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh has disclosed Federal Government’s intention to purchase 10,000 tractors from U.S.-based John Deere Agriculture and Farming Equipment Company within the next five years. FG to procure 10,000 tractors for agric mechanisation to promote food security.

Precision agriculture and unmanned tractors.

Cory Anstey always wanted to be a farmer. It was the joy of riding in the tractor, "the smell of the dirt in the spring" that drew him to the fields. Anstey, 44, is also a bit of a techie. Luckily for him, modern agriculture lets him embrace both of his passions. Anstey started using GPS technology in his machinery about 15 years ago and now even lets his tractor steer itself across his fields. "It's very addictive, once you've had it," he tells me while taking a break at the 21st Century Cooperative, a mechanic shop/gas station/grain elevator in Cumberland, Iowa. Known simply as "the Co-op," the dusty office with grimy floors is the most popular hangout in this town of 250 people. It's here where farmers, many clad in overalls and boots, gather to drink pop (soda, for those not in the Midwest), snack on popcorn and gossip -- which includes chatter about the latest machines. As farmers work more acres with the same -- or even less -- manpower and bigger, more unwieldy machines, they're increasingly turning to technology for help. But it's not the usual tech suspects like Google or Apple inventing a better pitchfork; instead, traditional agriculture machinery manufacturers like John Deere and New Holland keep stepping up their innovation. Self-driving tractors are commonplace (the farmer still sits behind the wheel). Sensors can detect everything from what the machine's doing to what the crop conditions are. Farmers can monitor the progress of planting and harvesting from their iPads, and tractors serve as their own mobile hotspots. It's a skewed reflection of our own increasingly connected world, except farmers have used many of those technologies, like auto-steering and GPS mapping, since the '90s. It used to take years for farmers to figure out the condition of their land. Today, a farmer doesn't need much institutional knowledge about the field he's working -- his tractor knows all, thanks to GPS mapping. Location tech manages three quarters of the acres farmed in Iowa, Darr said. Mapping technology talks to sensors in the machines, letting farmers track what's going on at each location, like yield and moisture level. You can see the info on a display built into the tractor, like a big GPS display. The data gets saved in the cloud and can be accessed on computers and tablets. Many farmers even mount iPads in their tractors as second monitors. The saying about real estate is location, location, location," said Ron Zink, John Deere's director of onboard applications. "It's the same with precision ag. You need to know exactly where you are." Planters have auto-shutoff technology that uses GPS to make sure a farmer doesn't accidentally plant an area twice, saving seeds, fuel and time. They can be nearly perfect in spacing seeds apart from each other, compared with only about 60 percent accuracy with planters from 10 years ago, according to Darr. Farmers can follow their yield in real time as they harvest their fields or go back to the data later. And the machines themselves collect information like the temperature of the engine, the amount of fuel used and the location of that machine, letting farmers repair and maintain equipment. contribution by cnet.com

AFAN Wants Tractors, Other Implements For Hire.

AFAN Wants Tractors, Other Implements For Hire. The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Edo chapter, has called on the state government to provide tractors, bulldozers, graders and other farm implements for farmers in the state to hire. The state Chairman of AFAN, Chief Emmanuel Odigie, made the call in an interview with newsmen in Benin. Odigie said the association was willing to pay an agreed amount to the state government on a monthly basis for the use of the equipment if provided. He said “the idea is to enable our members to hire them at affordable rates to prepare farmlands and construct roads leading to the farms.“Our investigation revealed that farm produce waste away in the farms due to inaccessible and deplorable state of our farm roads. “If the roads were graded, farmers would evacuate their produce and avoid the waste,” he said. continue

Autonomous tractors and precision agriculture.

Precision agriculture has is a management system that is information and technology-based, is site specific, and uses one or more of the following sources of data: soils, crops, nutrients, pests, moisture, or yield for optimum profitability, sustainability, and protection of the environment. Autonomous, or operator-less technology, has found usefulness as a tool in precision agriculture. Autonomous tractors have increasingly found usefulness in material handling systems used in factories and slowly finding acceptance in automotive vehicle lane in agriculture. The self-driving models from manufacturers such as Tesla and Google – offer varying degrees of reduced operator input. Autonomous Tractor Corporation (ATC), headquartered in Fargo, ND, has introduced AutoDrive, a patented navigation system that combines GPS technology with two individual on-ground validation systems. At the heart of AutoDrive is ATC’s Laser-Radio Navigation System (LRNS), a Local Area Network (LAN) system based on Radio Frequency (RF) technology that utilizes artificial intelligence (IA) to “train” the tractor to do repetitive tasks without programming. AutoDrive is trained to perform the task just as the farmer does. when AutoDrive becomes proficient at that task and suitably trusted, slowly more tasks can be introduced. The parent farmer has no more trust for an autonomous tractor then for a son or daughter until a certain level of trust is developed over time. For safety, AutoDrive comes with a sonar-based detection system that will immediately bring the tractor to a halt when an object is detected 30’ away. When this occurs, a text is sent to the owner, who through two pan-tilt cameras can remotely access what has happened. Read

AGRIBUSINESS: how to start a tryctor business to promote mechanization.

AGRIBUSINESS: The tryctor. The demand for tractors over the next 10 years is estimated at over 300,000 units in Nigeria and across the West African region. However, there are only about 20,000 currently available. 

A new business gap is available for investment in farm tools,implements and tractors to lease out to farmers,

  An investment in a tryctor is all you need to make money from this gap. The Tryctor is a mini tractor based on a motorcycle design modified into a 3 wheeler using parts which are locally available.  

 By attaching various implements, the Tryctor is designed to carry out several farming operations similar to those of a conventional tractor, but to a smaller scale. In addition, it is a useful means of transportation once the trailer is attached to convey produce to nearby markets. 

The Tryctor has also been designed with a special feature which enables you to use in place of a generator to produce electricity.

 This makes it ideal for any small-scale farmer. The Tryctor is affordable, easy for farmers to maintain and simple enough for mechanics to carry out basic repairs should the need arise. The Tryctor is supplied with: !) A Disc Plough. 2)Cultivator and a Trailer. 3) a Tine.

Digital farms : the future of Agriculture.

 

 Farmers, ranchers and growers the world over are transitioning to precision agricultural methods, i.e., subdividing their acreage into many unique sub-plots -- in some cases right down to the individual plant, tree, or animal -- thereby enabling increased productivity, trace-ability and lower overall costs.

 Low-cost aerial vehicles, sensors and cameras are integral to the process and are being used to map, observe, sense and spray. 

 Robotic automation is already widely practiced and can be seen today in milking systems and increasingly in precision techniques that use sensors and drone-mounted cameras to steer tractors and to monitor soil for temperature, moisture, disease, varmints, crop quantity, weather damage, and nutrient content. 

 This data is then analyzed in order to improve decision-making on planting, weeding, pruning and chemical application. 

Digitally-controlled farm implements are already in use in developed countries and most Western farmers and ranchers are high-tech to some extent and more variable-rate dispensing devices are on the horizon. 

How technology in agriculture can reduce extreme poverty.

Self-steering kits can be found in most new tractors and follow RTK/GPS and digital guidance with levels of accuracy down to the centimeter level. 

 There are partially and fully automatic and robotic devices for most aspects of agricultural functions from grafting to planting, from harvesting to sorting, from packaging to boxing, but because the metrics of their implementation have thus far been too costly, and the safety and liability aspects difficult, so they are not widely deployed. 

 Read about Zenvus

 These challenges are being met with a new group of vendors, lower costs, and new robotic products, often marketed in the form of Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS). Adding to these challenges are ever-increasing costs and lack of available water, labor and tillable land. continue

Agribusiness: Making money leasing farm machinery to farmers.

Farm machinery is part and parcel of a successful agribusiness but many farmers shun the equipment due to high costs. Entrepreneurs can cash in by investing in these farm equipment and then lease out to farmers for a fee.

For livestock farmers, depending on the size of investment, tractors, chaff-cutters, mowers, sprayers, forage harvesters and balers are some of the machinery to consider as they help in proper management and feeding of the livestock.

 Creative and  innovations to boost farming productivity is encouraged as it also helps grow the country’s economy in different ways.  Emphasis on irrigation to reduce dependence on rain-fed farming should also be of core interest of the in the face of limited farming land and idle land deemed un-farmable due to the prevailing dry conditions. 

 In crop farming, tractors, ploughs, planters, tillers and harrowers, among others, are essential as they facilitate better farming. continue

Big data technology ,precision agriculture and food security.

A self-driving John Deere tractor rumbles through Ian Pigott’s 2,000-acre farm every week or so to spray fertilizer, guided by satellite imagery and each plot’s harvesting history. The 11-ton behemoth, loaded with so many screens it looks like an airplane cockpit, relays the nutrient information to the farmer’s computer system. With weather forecasts and data on pesticide use, soil readings, and plant tissue tests pulled by various pieces of software, Pigott can keep tabs on the farm down to the square meter in real time without ever leaving his carpeted office. “This is becoming more standard,” says Pigott, who grows a rotation of wheat, oil seed, oats, and barley on his farm in the rolling Hertfordshire countryside an hour north of London.We can take our data, walk right into the fields with an iPad or iPhone, pinpoint exactly where we are ... and figure out what we should be doing with each parcel of land” German chemical company Bayer cited the growth in such digitally assisted farming as a key reason for its $62 billion bid for Monsanto, which has become a leading provider of analytics used by growers. Bayer Chief Executive Officer Werner Baumann says Monsanto is at the “forefront of digital farming.” Acquiring the company would further Bayer’s goal of identifying and providing the best-suited seeds, fertilizers, and chemicals for farms around the world. Signs of the transition to precision agriculture are obvious ,the use of drones providing bird’s-eye views of fields; mapping software locating underground water sources; sensor- laden tractors monitoring harvests in real time. It’s happening outside the fields, too. Cows’ meal portions are adjusted automatically based on their milk output. Infrared cameras identify chickens with fevers, protecting flocks. A software offers farmers recommendations on what to plant and where to plant it and farmers are very excited about new technology. Read

'Augmented Agriculture' and internet of things.

'Augmented Agriculture' the Focus of New Topcon Partnership. Topcon Agriculture officials maintain the company has a core emphasis on “Internet of Things” technology – that is, connecting real-world objects to the Internet. (If you own a smartphone, you are already using IoT technology every day.) With the announcement of a new non-exclusive, long-term partnership, Topcon hopes to keep its IoT ambitions front and center. The partnership is with SDF, a company that manufactures tractors, diesel engines, harvesting machinery and other ag equipment. The agreement will help facilitate “active and continuous cooperation” to develop IoT solutions for the agriculture industry, according to Fabio Isaia, CEO of Topcon Agriculture. “Topcon [is committed] to bring the Internet of Things and augmented agriculture to every farm,” he says. His company seeks to do that through integrating high-precision technology, software and data, Isaia adds. Lodovico Bussolati, CEO of SDF, says he is excited by the potential opportunities the partnership could bring. “Precision farming is a key factor in order to improve both the productivity and the well-being of the end-users,” he says. “The strengthening of SDF’s current collaboration with Topcon reinforces our position in providing to the final customer the most advanced farming technology integrated into our products.” more

Farmers use tractor smoke as fertilizer.

Arusha farmers are teaching their Kenyan counterparts a revolutionary technology that helps turn harmful farming machinery smoke into soil fertilizer having introduced to them last year and recorded increased yields of upto 15 percent as the novel idea hopes to assist farmers markedly cut carbon emissions. The technology dubbed The Bioagtive Emmissions Technology already being used in Canada and parts of America, ensures that instead of letting out exhaust fumes and smokes from tractors and other farm machinery go where they are going to be destructive, the fumes are tapped and channeled into the soil where the fumes become fertilizers. The Bio-Agtive method involves cooling the tractor exhaust emissions then injecting the condensed gas into the air cart or directly into the soil while sowing or cultivating. When seeding with Bio-Agtive Emissions Technology (BAET), the cooled exhaust emissions are directed first into the air cart. It exposes the seed to humidity and oxidized elements from the emissions. While, the chemistry is fairly involved, the results, according to those involved in the project, are plants that create their own nitrate, develop better root systems and have much less reliance on fertilizer. “Soil acidity is also reduced due to the action of carbon dioxide in acidic soils,” said Gary Lewis whose company N/C Quest licenses the Bio-Agtive system. Kenyan farmers on an exchange programme to Arusha witnessed first hand how the Arusha farmers have perfected the art of mechanized agriculture, farming using machines, and how they ensure that any fumes or toxics that may harm the environment are put to good use. “The most interesting thing about this venture apart from using all the aspects of the machines including smoke, is the fact that it reduces farmers' over reliance on fertilizer and that to me is a huge lesson because that is one of the biggest problems,”said Cyrus Kimutai a wheat farmer in Eldoret who was in the exchange programme.source

How farming without soil can reduce methane emission in cattle.

Cattle are responsible for 20% of the world's green house gas,contributing to climate change experienced worldwide. 

The methane emission stems from their digestion model,wherein feed ingested are digested by gut microbes in rumen resulting in large amounts of the methane gas,the constant chewing ,regurgitation contributes to the burping and farting which releases the gas to the atmosphere. The change in diet of cattle to more easily digestible and metabolisable feed ensures less regurgitation,more absorption and less methane emission. 

 

Farming without soil also referred to as hydroponics refers to growing plants in nutrient rich media under controlled temperature and humidity to produce fresh fodder for animals,which are highly nutritious, easily digestible and free from pesticides. 

 Farming without soil can be used to grow food for man and fodder for livestock saving money,reducing water use and need for pesticides. Farming without soil can be used to grow wheat,sorghum, millet,corn and oats making a nutritious fodder for animals. Cattle fed with hydroponic fodder grow fast, produce more milk,beef and less gas. 

The animals have access to the full nutrients from the cereal or legume,the minerals protein and fat are liberated in the fodder making it a great alternative. 

  Cows normally have access to 20% of energy in the grain diet while with fodder system 95% of the energy is available for growth and reproductive health and performance. The short span of growth from seed to fodder within 7 days ensures that animals have fresh fodder all year round.  

 Farming without soil is ecofriendly because there is no pressure on the environment for the following reasons 1) limited land space is needed. 2) less amount of water is required to sprout the seeds. 3)reduction of carbon print on farms as no machinery like tractors are used. 4)fodder is highly digestible preventing excessive burping and farting thus reducing methane emission. 5) smart agriculture. Farming without soil = hydroponics is a form of #smart agriculture our #solution to #climate change.

FG Seeks Inclusion in Brazil More Food Program.

FG Seeks Inclusion in Brazil More Food Program. The Federal government through the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh has sought the inclusion of Nigeria into Brazil More Food Programme, as a means to improving the nations agriculture. The Minister stated this when he received a 14 man delegation from Brazil led by its Minister of External Affairs, Aloysio Nunes Ferreira in Abuja on Thursday.According to Ogbeh “We know you started the More Food Program as a policy of cooperation between the South South nations of the world and we are very excited by it. He said “we have been in Brazil twice and with your visit like to strengthen our demand and request that Nigeria be included on the lists of beneficiaries of the program.We have made our submissions and are waiting for the response from Brazil”. Ogbeh noted that “Nigeria has many deficiencies and do not have enough machines,tractors and machineries for value addition and so we really ask Brazil to give us that kind of support on reasonable terms which we shall repay over a period” “What we want to assure Brazil is that if we do take part in that programme,we would repay on schedule and that the support is something that Nigeria will value very highly”.

Mechanization and agribusiness.

Mechanization is an essential tool for success of agribusiness as it improves productivity and profits farmers. Farmers need to embrace the role of farm machinery if they are to be successful,but many smallscale farmers are yet to imbibe the emerging farming technologies and machinery. Factors, such as the high cost of machines and farmers’ lack of access to finance, make the machinery unaffordable for resource-poor farmers. Farmers are calling for a change, one of them is Debo Thomas, a large scale farmer in Ogbomosho, Oyo State. His community has a strong agricultural tradition – nearly two-thirds of its population are farmers. Though he uses agricultural machinery to plant and harvest crops, he is among those canvassing the introduction of cheap, easy-to-operate and easy-to-maintain tractors that can be fitted to a various innovative auxiliary equipment for planting, threshing and irrigation.continue

Precision Farming The $250 Billion Market And Goldman Sachs.

Precision farming and digital agriculture will help the industry achieve this critical goal. Feeding the world’s ever increasing population is big business, but it’s also an imprecise business and as the world’s population grows, improving efficiency to lift crop yields is going to become a priority for farmers. Precision agriculture could lift crop yields 70% by 2050, creating a $240 billion market for farm tech over the same period.These figures are from a new research booklet on the topic of precision farming from Goldman Sachs. The investment bank believes that the precision farming market could offer a tremendous opportunity, for both farmers and investors. The global crop production value in 2015 was $1.2 trillion, but there’s also plenty of waste in the system. Figures show that 40% of farm fields are over fertilized resulting in a yield loss of 15% to 20% from inadequate fertilizer application. Yields could be increased by around 18% by using precision fertilizer technology. Also, precision planting could produce a 13% improvement in yield while a further 13% improvement could be achieved via a fleet of smaller automated tractors. (According to academic research cited by Goldman, soil compaction — a result of large farm equipment — has decreased yields by 15% to 20% over the years). Further, it is estimated that farmers could reduce wastewater by 50% with precision irrigation systems paired with water sensors leading to a 10% improvement in yield.Some of these technologies are already in action and will be developed and refined over the next few years to enhance the product offering.Some farmers are already making use of multi-seed planters, which have just started to enter commercial production. These planters give farmers the ability to combine properties of different seeds in one planting. Farmers have noted that are using two different seed types they can increase yields by around 3% to 8% by matching up the right seeds to the right soil types. Growers note that the optimal hybrid seed mix utilizes two seed types; an offensive and a defensive variety. more

Solar powered agriculture in India.

Solar energy is an alternative renewable energy that is increasingly becoming mainstream due to cost feasibility and higher efficiency. Apart from producing power for offices and households, solar energy can be used to power dryers, cookers, solar stills, lighting, refrigeration and even air conditioning. There is increasing usage of solar energy for agricultural purposes, which consumes considerable amount of power in India. Solar power technology would be a reasonable choice for agricultural tools. Solar Photovoltaic cells (SPV) directly convert the light energy from the sun into electricity. Concentrated solar power (CSP) systems use an indirect method for the conversion process. Solar Farming Solar Farming in India .Solar farming uses power generated from solar energy to operate agricultural or farming tools. It is simple, cost effective, reliable and long lasting. Most common agricultural tools such as tractors, watering systems, rotator, roller, planter, sprayers, broadcast seeder etc. work on battery power and fuel oil. In solar farming, the battery power is replaced with solar power, so that the usage of electricity from grid-power and non-renewable sources can be reduced. more

Agribusiness: leveraging technology in agriculture.

Drones are just one of many technologies whose use in the agricultural sector could cut operation costs and improve yields, helping a growing global population with shrinking resources to cultivate more food with fewer inputs Silicon Valley and the vast cornfields of the U.S. Midwest may appear to have little in common, but a growing relationship between big data and agriculture is poised to improve yields, reduce raw material use and decrease production costs. 

 Over the past year, the precision agriculture industry, which has pioneered the use of unmanned aerial vehicles and robotics to increase data collection and efficiency in agriculture, has continued to expand in the United States and around the world. As drone use in agriculture becomes even more prevalent and new achievements in machine learning and artificial intelligence are made, high technologies — the internet of things, big data, robotics and artificial intelligence — will overlap with agriculture more and more. 

 The concept of precision agriculture, or the use of data to enhance agricultural production, has been around for more than two decades. The field includes a range of different technologies, including GPS-guided tractors, yield and soil monitoring, variable rate applications for water and fertilizers, and data collection by satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles. 

 Technology in agriculture will enable farmers to do more with less — especially as advances in sensor technology and computing technology continue — to keep up with rising demand for agricultural products over the next few decades. Using even one of the precision agriculture technologies can save farmers substantially on a per-acre basis. continue

Internet farming: all you need to know about rice cultivation.

Internet farming: all you need to know about rice cultivation. Nigeria, which is the largest producer of rice in West Africa and the third in Africa after Egypt and Madagascar producing about 3 million metric tons on the average annually, falls short of meeting its local demand which is placed at about 5 million tons. Rice can be grown anywhere, that is, rice can grow in all the geographical zones of Nigeria depending on the variety. There are numerous varieties of rice that can be cultivated in Nigeria. The process involved in rice cultivation depends on the geographical and ecological factors available. The different varieties thrive in different geographical and ecological zones in Nigeria. The basic fact is to start with good seeds to ensure bumper harvest. Good quality seed can increase yields by 5-20%. Using good seed leads to lower seeding rates, higher crop emergence, reduced replanting, more uniform plant stands, and more vigorous early crop growth. Vigorous growth in early stages reduces weed problems and increases crop resistance to insect pests and diseases. All of these factors contribute to higher yields and more productive rice farms. Good seed should be the pure form of the chosen variety, full and uniform in size, viable with more than 80% germination with good seedling vigor, and free of weed seeds, seed-borne diseases, pathogens, insects, or other matter. Before rice can be planted, the soil should be in the best physical condition for crop growth and the soil surface is level. Land preparation involves plowing and harrowing to ‘till’ or dig-up, mix and level the soil. Tillage allows the seeds to be planted at the right depth, and also helps with weed control. Farmers can till the land themselves using hoes and other equipment or they can be assisted by draft animals, such as buffalo, or tractors and other machinery. Next, the land is leveled to reduce the amount of water wasted by uneven pockets of too-deep water or exposed soil. Effective land leveling allows the seedlings to become established more easily, reduces the amount of effort required to manage the crop, and increases both grain quality and yields. RICE CULTIVATION.

Precision agriculture with Farm bot.

Precision farming has been hailed as the future of agriculture, sustainability, and the food industry. That’s why a company called FarmBot is working to bring precision agriculture technology to environmentally conscious individuals for the first time. The company’s first product — the FarmBot Genesis — is a do-it-yourself precision farming solution, that (theoretically) anyone can figure out. The system is already up to its ninth iteration, and the open source robot improves in each version thanks to input from the FarmBot community. The precision farming movement may not solve every problem the industry faces, but it does have a lot of potential to improve sustainability and efficiency. Before FarmBot, precision agriculture equipment was only available in the form of massive heavy machinery. Precision farming tractors used to cost more than $1 million each when FarmBot creator Rory Aronson first had the idea for his solution in 2011. More

Transforming agriculture.

A new day is dawning for agriculture. When asked to describe the magnitude of the coming change, experts harken back to seminal advances such as the rise of mechanization, the invention of synthetic fertilizers and crop protection chemicals, and the advent of transgenic crops. Within the next five years—less time than it takes to discover and commercialize a new agricultural chemical—gene editing will transform seed and trait development across a wide variety of crops. A new generation of plants will be equipped to thrive in the face of yield-eating climate stress. And all-seeing eyes in the sky will pinpoint problems in the field before the first leaf droops. These tools will not be as obvious as when tractors replaced mules, but they are poised to make a difference where it counts: helping farmers profitably increase yields.At the same time, the business of bringing new tools to market is changing, thanks to consolidation among major agriculture firms that traditionally are the big investors in innovation. For better or worse, Dow Chemical’s planned merger with DuPont, ChemChina’s pending acquisition of Syngenta, and Bayer’s attempt to acquire Monsanto are reshaping the agricultural landscape. Increasing the productivity of agriculture is critical to feeding a growing population. But in the past decade, the per-acre rate of output growth in the U.S. averaged a mere 1.0% per year for corn and 1.6% for soybeans, according to figures from the consulting firm Bain & Co.continue