{"id":4780,"date":"2022-06-01T13:32:49","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T17:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.alumni.ncsu.edu\/?p=1632"},"modified":"2024-02-01T16:25:37","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T21:25:37","slug":"plowing-a-new-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/2022\/plowing-a-new-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Plowing a New Future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
It\u2019s been roughly 80 years since tractors started to replace horses\u2009\u2014\u2009not to mention the occasional mule\u2009\u2014\u2009as the source of power for farmers plowing their fields. And for generations of farmers, that clunky piece of machinery was about as high-tech as things got for the planting and harvesting of their crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recent years have seen technology start to creep into agriculture, with some farmers relying on drones to survey their fields or allowing GPS to steer a driverless tractor. But in an age when technology seems to be overtaking everything at a head-spinning pace, agriculture has largely stuck to its roots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s about to change, primarily because farmers must become more efficient and sustainable in order to feed a growing planet while farm acreage is dwindling, extreme weather is increasing and the cost of everything from fertilizer to labor is on the rise. And NC State is helping to lead the charge, one that will utilize everything from artificial intelligence to robotics to fundamentally change how our food is grown, fertilized and harvested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are going to be many, many more mouths to feed in the future,\u201d says N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler \u201974, who has childhood memories of steering a mule as it pulled a plow through the soil on his granddaddy\u2019s farm in western North Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe know that our natural resources are shrinking as the result of development and other things. We see massive increases in the cost for things like fertilizer and pesticides. The only way we get there is through research and technology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NC State is transforming its agricultural research efforts, bringing together teams of professors from different disciplines to tackle questions ranging from how to make fertilizer less expensive and more effective to how cover crops such as clover and rye can reduce runoff from storms. The university is figuring out new ways to use drones, sensors and robots to give farmers a clearer picture of what\u2019s happening with their crops. And it\u2019s using artificial intelligence to speed up the development of new breeds of crops and take some of the guesswork out of farming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The effort falls under the umbrella of what is known as the Plant Sciences Initiative (PSI). At its center sits a new building on Centennial Campus that is unlike any ever built at NC State, one designed to bring disparate groups from across campus and elsewhere together for brainstorming, research and collaboration. With cutting-edge greenhouses perched on top of the building and open, reconfigurable lab spaces inside, the building is a brick-and-steel symbol of NC State\u2019s ambition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That ambition is to make NC State a world leader in a quest to revolutionize agriculture. \u201cTrying to be the best plant science center globally is obviously a really big ambition,\u201d says Adrian Percy, who left a career in the private sector to come to NC State last year as the first executive director of the Plant Sciences Initiative. \u201cBut it will have a meaningful impact in North Carolina and beyond the borders of our state.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trying to be the best plant science center globally is obviously a really big ambition, but it will have a meaningful impact in North Carolina and beyond the borders of our state. –Adrian Percy, executive director, Plant Sciences Initiative<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Or as Chris Reberg-Horton, a professor of cropping systems at NC State, argues: \u201cWe\u2019re on the verge of the biggest technological revolution in agriculture that we\u2019ve had in decades. I tell my students all the time, in 10 years you\u2019re not going to recognize what\u2019s going on on a farm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cow College 2.0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leading the effort is the university\u2019s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). Historically, the college has been a traditional program, running breeding programs for a wide range of crops grown in North Carolina and using a network of Extension agents to keep farmers in the loop on the latest research by soil and crop scientists at the university. Much of that work speaks to NC State\u2019s mission as a land-grant university to serve the state, but it has also led to periodic barbs from rival schools describing NC State as a \u201ccow college.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When he became the dean of CALS nearly 10 years ago, Richard Linton had a view of what the future could hold for farming\u2009\u2014\u2009and for the work of agricultural researchers and breeders at NC State. (Linton left the university in February to become the president of Kansas State University.) \u201cNorth Carolina was ready for something big in the agriculture and food system space,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n