Maximum Yield USA March 2017 | Page 26

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Precision Farming Market to Reach $ 7.8 Billion by 2022
A report covering the precision agriculture market , published by Allied Market Research , forecasts that the global market is expected to garner USD $ 7.8 billion by 2022 , registering a compound annual growth rate ( CAGR ) of 14.9 per cent during the period 2016-2022 . It presents significant potential in enhancing food productivity while providing sustainable management of resources . From a growth perspective , geographic information system ( GIS ) technology is anticipated to exhibit the highest CAGR , driven by higher adoption mainly in North America and Europe . However , the software market , encompassing inventory management software , people management software , and financial management software , among others , is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period . North America presently leads the market because of high investment in agriculture technologies , high awareness levels , and wide Internet penetration . The Asia-Pacific market , especially China and Japan , is likely to exhibit the highest growth , however , thanks to the increasing adoption of advanced agriculture technologies such as VRT and drone .
alliedmarketresearch . com
Kimbal Musk Opens Shipping Container Farm Compound
Late last year , Kimbal Musk and fellow entrepreneur Tobias Peggs launched Square Roots , an urban farming incubator program in Brooklyn . The set-up consists of 10 steel shipping container farms where young entrepreneurs work to develop vertical farming start-ups . The USDA gave the Square Roots entrepreneurs small loans to cover preliminary operating expenses . Other investors include Powerplant Ventures , GroundUp , Lightbank , and FoodTech Angels . About the size of the standard one-car garage , each shipping container can produce the same amount of crops as two acres of outdoor farmland . All the Square Roots farmers sold their first harvests at a local farmers ’ market .
uk . businessinsider . com
Country Bees Headed to the Big City
Biologist Gerardo Camilo and his team are trying to better understand why the number and variety of bee species are growing in cities . Camilo says one of the reason is that bees are losing habitat in rural areas as industrial agriculture continues to promote monocultures , a practice where farmers plant one crop over a large area . Wild bees also nest in the ground , which can make their homes vulnerable to intensive farming practices like tilling . However , as plant variety declines on farms , potential bee habitats like community gardens are flourishing in urban spaces . In St . Louis , Camilo also discovered the largest variety of wild bees were in low-income neighborhoods where people may not have the time or money to spend on pest control . “ People would say it ’ s unkempt because you have all this leftover vegetation ,” he says . “ Well , bees like that because it provides habitat ; it provides refuge .”
newsworks . org
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