How is Virtual Reality revolutionizing Agriculture?

You’ve heard of tissue culture, right? But have you ever heard of virtual culture or virtual cultivation of plants? Or schemes of green revolution helping farmers to learn plantation culture virtually? Or any of your agriculturist friends completing their online course from an esteemed London university? 

 

There is one thing common in all these examples i.e., Virtual Reality. What is the meaning of virtual reality and how is it revolutionizing the agriculture sector? Let us have a look.

 

 

Agriculture and Virtual Reality

 

Agriculture

 

Agriculture is an ancient Indian practice. The proof of agriculture can be traced from 2500 BC, from Indus Valley Civilization. The term agriculture may be defined as growing a particular crop on a large piece of land for living and earning. 

 

Examples of Agriculture:

 

India is the traditional land of agriculture. The topography of different states supports different agricultural crops. Here are the few major examples: 

 

1. Production of wheat in Haryana and Punjab.

 

2. Paddy cultivation in West Bengal.

 

3. Tea plantation in Assam.

 

4. Jute cultivation in West Bengal.

 

Virtual Reality

 

Virtual reality is an application of artificial intelligence. It is an example of computer technology. It helps in creating an artificial imitation of the surrounding that is similar to the original surrounding. 

 

Virtual reality is created with the help of software. It is presented to the user in such a way that the user accepts and believes it as a real environment. Virtual reality is experienced through two senses: vision and sound.

 

What is an example of virtual reality?

 

Let us consider a common example, have you ever been to a 3D cinema. And got amazed by having a real time movie experience. A 3D or 5D cinema hall is an application of virtual reality.

 

And taking a most recent example of e-learning. We all remember how the global pandemic has changed the education system of the world. It is also an example of virtual reality in the real world.

 

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Mode of Virtual Reality used in Agriculture

 

In agriculture, virtual reality is used in following modes:

 

1. Virtual Practical

 

Virtual practical helps the user to feel real hand experience of doing a task.

 

2. Virtual Theory Programs

 

These programs help the user to understand the basic concepts of a topic through theory classes.

 

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3. Virtual Courses

 

Such courses help to earn a certificate and degree of a particular course by attending regular online classes. This is one of the most striking applications of virtual reality in agriculture.

 

4. Virtual culture

 

The technique that helps in growing plants and saplings with the help of virtual environment and conditions is called as virtual culture.

 

What is the role of Virtual Reality in Agriculture?

 

Virtual reality has a lot of applications in different sectors of life. From cinema to robotics, virtual reality has its legs in each body. In agriculture it helps farmers to understand about the latest technologies, latest agricultural equipment, soil requirements, cropping patterns, harvesting steps, and profit outputs. 

 

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Virtual reality plays an important role in strengthening the agro-economic status of the country. Here are the ways in which virtual reality is changing the agriculture sector.

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Role of Virtual Reality in Agriculture

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1. Create 3D visualization

 

Virtual reality helps in recreating a 3D work environment. This helps the farmers to carry out pre-plantation activities or harvesting. This further helps him to learn about his strong and weak hand in the technique.

 

 

2. Less training costs

 

Virtual training of farming is less expensive than the real hand training. Original modern farming equipment is too costly, and a trainee farmer or agriculturist cannot afford them. 

 

In such a situation virtual training excavates an easy way. It helps the fresher farmers and agricultural trainees to learn the technique easily at cheaper costs. Though, a minor disadvantage of virtual training is that it is a bit less practical than real hand experience.

 

 

3. Free resources

 

Most of the resources available on virtual training are free of cost.

 

 

4. Help to build budding agriculturists

 

Virtual reality due to its advanced technology has the power to convince its audience. Thus, virtual learning programs are able to attract GenZ in the agriculture field. It innovates more users to pursue agricultural studies and practices as their career.

 

 

5. Help to connect with global market

 

Virtual reality with the aid of the internet helps the producer to connect with the global market. This connection of the world helps the users to learn about global technologies and equipment.

 

 

6. Learn with the best faculty of world

 

Virtual reality helps to connect farming students with the best global faculty. This strengthens their learning and understanding ability. Also, when a student learns from a best teacher, he builds a better nation.  

 

 

7. Helps in understanding soil profile

 

Virtual reality collects the data of different geographic locations and its soil profile. This data further helps to draw observations related to the nature of soil, minerals present in the soil, water retaining capacity of soil, and soil deficiency. Thus, virtual reality helps in understanding farmers the best suitable crops for their fields.

 

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8. Reduces cost of plant protection tools

 

After studying the agricultural patterns, farmers can learn more about crops and their protection methods. This analysis report allows farmers to purchase only required tools.

 

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Virtual culture: biggest role of virtual reality in agriculture

 

This technique helps the cultivators and researchers to grow plants in an artificial environment called virtual culture.

 

Process of virtual cultivation of plants:

 

The plant is cultivated in an isolated environment. The set has already instructed with the required amount of temperature, heat, precipitation, humus, chemicals, and other needs. 

 

The AI controlled environment then releases the required material at required time. Just a healthy seedling sprouts in an artificial environment. The whole virtual culture process is controlled by an observatory. 

 

Reference blog: How virtual plants are revolutionizing the lives of the farmers

 

 

Real life examples of virtual reality in agriculture

 

Many projects are launched in the field of agriculture. These projects are tightly related with virtual reality in one way or another. Let us consider the case study of some great examples of virtual reality in agriculture.

 

1. Huxley

 

This is the case of plant vision. The project is wholly operated by artificial intelligence. The application contains information about temperature, soil, water, fertilizer, and humus requirement of the plant. The whole from cultivation to harvesting is done under an observed and controlled AI set.

 

2. Isabel

 

This project was launched in San Francisco. It is a virtual reality based mobile application that deals with the farming process of more than 17 hectares of a hydroponic farm. It is an affordable project set which also trains its staff. Similar project has been started in Peru.

 

The leading countries which are utilizing these technologies to the fullest in the field of agriculture are the United States, Britain, Japan, and other Scandinavian countries. 

 

Virtual reality (VR) and Augmented reality (AR) are the backbone of the future. The progress of any traditional system directly or indirectly depends on these two technologies.