What is the importance?
Agriculture is the number one industry in the world, providing work for 11% of the United States’ workforce (USDA). Agriculture has been in existence for thousands of years, so it is only fitting to discuss how far this industry has come in terms of technology and communication. Lack of accurate information and communication has led to a huge gap between consumers and producers. The development of collegiate Agriculture Communications studies and social media have aided with education. With less than 2% of people actively employed in a farming career (Sara Lepley), the industry is always looking for ways to increase production so that the dwindling farming population will still be able to feed the world for generations to come. Mechanization, doppler radar, and farming apps have been tremendous improvements for production. With a consistent amount of labor forces needed and an inconsistent quantity of labor employees available, it is important the industry finds methods to increase yields on less land, with less labor.
What can we do?
Direct communication is key in today’s world. The public's perception of farming is getting worse and consumers have questions. New and innovative college majors, such as Agricultural Communications, and social media platforms, enable farmers to better communicate why they utilize certain practices in the field. Agricultural Communications is a major that focuses on advocating for agriculture using facts and social media to ensure agriculture has a positive perception in the eyes of the public. An example of a common misconception is the idea that spraying herbicides on plants is dangerous. However, now that there are better ways to communicate, conventional farmers are able to explain that without using different sprays, it would result in loss of yield in the field, and complete weed take-over. Weeds take up the crops’ nutrients in the soil, water and nutrients. According to Leonard Gianessi, in his article, “The Value of Herbicides in U.S. Crop Production”, he states that rice fields had a yield increase of 160% due to the use of different sprays. The herbicides used today are not the same potent and destructive chemicals of the past. Scientists have developed materials that are effective and yet safe. The strict regulations implemented in the United States has ensured these tools, when applied appropriately, are harmless to both the consumer and the environment. Being completely organic sounds ideal and would be ideal but the problem is, farmers would not be able to support our world's population due to the decrease in yield and increase in weeds. The adoption of chemical sprays is essential for the successful growth and highest yields of the crops that are feeding today’s world.
The Agricultural Communication major students are now able to properly send out this message and directly communicate with the public. With this major being implemented into more college systems, the agriculture industry will be able to explain, thus carry out an effective way to communicate why certain things must be done to put food on the table. The farmer can also take advantage of social media and promote the business and practices to a wide audience through the internet. Photos, history, and explained practices and philosophies gives the farmer a face and voice to interact directly to potentially interested customers.
What have we done?
A new communication in the agriculture field is the development of the AgVerdict app, commonly used by the chemical company, Wilbur-Ellis. This app makes it easier for the grower to get information about their fields within minutes of the Wilbur-Ellis employee scouting for insects and disease. The field scout physically walks the field and checks the commodity, reporting problems on the app, which is then emailed to the grower. According to the AgVerdict website, “AgVerdict combines field-specific data with our agronomists’ knowledge for a strategic decision-making toolkit to maximize our customers’ return on investment”. Having the app creates an efficient way for farmers and field scouts to communicate and be updated on a weekly basis, which allows for farmers to see directly where the problems are occurring in the fields. This helps to aid the scouts in being able to directly input data to the app instead of using pen and paper, making the whole process quick and less cumbersome, as well as providing updated maps to ensure scouts get to the right field in a timely manner.
Farmers rely on weather in order to make a living, produce food and be successful in the production agriculture industry. Doppler Radar was a huge advancement for farmers nationwide, allowing them to be able to track the storms in live time. This allows the farmer to be able to know when they should spray, if a frost is coming so they can use preventable frost methods, and even track growth stages to be able to make informed decisions. Advance weather notice can allow a grower to turn on irrigation to ward off a damaging frost. Oftentimes an unpredictable summer shower can catch a farmer off guard and destroy crops like grapes, cherries and hay. When weather can be tracked days in advance, farmers can make the informed decision to pick the grapes earlier or in case of hay, cut it after the rain. Weeds and pests flourish during hot weather. Since it is now trackable, farmers are able to be on top of it and either spray or use another method of biological control.
Looking towards the future:
With the world continuing to grow and farming continuing to be a rare career choice, future generations are looking for ways to increase yields, with less land and fewer farmers and laborers. This extensive goal has to be acquired while maintaining good relationships with consumers. The way farmers can do this is though using social media themselves, or hiring a graduate of the Agricultural Communications major to be able to convey messages to the public about why they use the practices they employ.
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