“Economics of strip cropping with autonomous machines” with James Lowenberg-DeBoer.

With the growing global population, the demand for food continues to rise. However, increasing food production often depends on intensive farming practices and agricultural inputs that can negatively impact environmental health. To counter this, promoting crop diversity, improving soil health, and reducing disease and pest pressure are crucial. Mixed cropping presents a viable solution but poses challenges for mechanization and labor efficiency. In this context, customized autonomous machines and advanced technology can play a key role in facilitating mixed cropping while lowering production costs. In this episode, Dr. James Lowenberg-DeBoer shares insights from his research on the economics of strip cropping—the simplest form of mixed cropping—using autonomous machines. He explores the feasibility and profitability of this approach, along with the challenges and opportunities in restoring crop biodiversity and ecosystem services, ultimately fostering better environmental health and sustainable agriculture.

Tune in to learn:

• What is mixed cropping?
• What makes a farm machine “autonomous”?
• How do autonomous machines contribute to environmentally friendly agriculture?
• What are the economic differences between automated strip farming and conventional strip farming?
• What are swarm robots in agriculture?

If you would like more information about this topic, this episode’s paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.21536

This paper is always freely available.

Contact us at [email protected] or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don’t forget to subscribe. If you’d like to see old episodes or sign up for our newsletter, you can do so here: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/.

If you would like to reach out to James Lowenberg-DeBoer, you can find him here: [email protected]

Resources

CEU Quiz: https://web.sciencesocieties.org/Learning-Center/Courses/Course-Detail?productid=%7b33E6AEA6-E1EA-EF11-A731-6045BD0350B4%7d 

Transcripts: https://www.rev.com/app/transcript/NjdhZTQyYmQwNjA1ZDQwNmFmYjNkYTU1LVVGWURKXzFZcFIy/o/VEMwOTcyNzA1Njg4 

Center for Effective Innovation in Agriculture: https://www.linkedin.com/company/71561378/admin/dashboard/

Hands Free Farm: www.handsfree.farm

Precision Agriculture Journal: https://link.springer.com/journal/11119

Digitization for Agroecology: https://d4agecol.eu/

Prairie Strips in the Conservation Reserve Program: https://www.nrem.iastate.edu/research/STRIPS/

Stockcropper: https://thestockcropper.com/

Thank you to our volunteer Om Prakash Ghimire for help with the shownotes and other assets. Thank you to Cole Shalk from 12twelve Media for the Audio Processing on today's episode.

Field, Lab, Earth is Copyrighted by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.