Farmers don’t need Silicon Valley to teach them how to farm.
That was the message from Paul Mikesell, founder and CEO of Carbon Robotics, during a recent interview.
Mikesell and his company are trying to carve out space in an increasingly crowded field of technology companies that want to make inroads in the agriculture industry.
Mikesell cut his teeth as the director of infrastructure engineering at Uber before eventually founding his current company, which developed the LaserWeeder, a product that leans heavily on artificial intelligence to identify and accurately zap weeds.
Silicon Valley doesn’t often take the best approach when looking at the agricultural sector, according to Mikesell.
“Too often,” he said, “Silicon Valley has the idea to deploy AI and teach the farmers how to farm.”
Instead, he said companies should “look at what’s already working in farming and try to optimize existing systems in the existing environment.”
The tech industry often has a “disrupt and replace” mindset. So, buyers should be wary of any company that is not collaborating with farmers, agronomists and others as part of its product development process.
How does ag tech miss the mark with farmers? Here are my thoughts:
- Places too much emphasis on “silver bullets.” Never forget, farming has a lot of moving pieces like weather, soil health, water availability and governmental policies — none of which can be fully controlled or optimized through technology. Realistically, it’s only one piece of the puzzle, not a magic solution that can solve everything.
- Ignores economic realities. The fact is these technologies, while lucrative in some cases, also can be quite expensive. With today’s thin profit margins, farmers might be priced out of some tech solutions.
- Overlooks the human element. Automation is certainly appealing for those struggling with labor shortages. But eliminating all manual work goes against the spirit of farming. It’s not just a business — it’s a way of life.
- Misjudges the “adoption curve.” The iPhone was introduced in 2007, and just three years later, smartphones were regarded as mainstream. The COVID-19 pandemic made a lot of workers proficient in Zoom and other video-conferencing platforms in a matter of weeks. But technology often requires a heavy investment — and a certain level of risk — from farmers. As a result, farmers demand a certain level of proven results and reliability before investing in new tools.
That said, AI, automation and other new technologies aren’t going away, and Mikesell is hopeful that they will make positive strides over the next two or three years.
“I think large language models for farm equipment, in particular, will be useful for command-and-control situations, where you could just tell a tractor to go to a certain field and perform a certain task,” he said. “And I think the human interface will get a lot easier.”