The Role of Data Annotation in Agriculture
Going to a supermarket and getting whatever we want for our lunch is our everyday practice. We're even used to some fruits and vegetables available all year round. We also allow ourselves the abundance of grains and roots on our plates. But have you ever wondered what hides behind? Taking logistics and harvesting aside, do you know what steps agriculture undertakes to make this availability and prosperity actually happen?
We use an enormous part of land for crops and continue having an increasing need to feed the planet's population. That's why agriculture is one of the leading sectors to employ technologies today. By using multiple sensors, drones, and GPS, it seeks solutions to meet the demands of our population. What are agriculture's latest technological advancements? And what role does data annotation play in them?
Data Usage in Agriculture
It's estimated that we use 44% of the habitable land for agriculture, and crops in particular. Besides, by 2050, we'll need to feed 2 more billion people than we feed today. How to manage such volumes? The agricultural industry has already started exploring numerous technological solutions.
The agricultural sector follows the path of sustainability and digital transformation. This has become possible with automating existing irrigation systems, using sensors and drones for soil and crops monitoring. The implementation of Generative AI tools and IoT helps agriculture advance and optimizes the environmental impact.
While deploying the ML models, agriculture mostly focuses on its computer vision part. The analysis of images and videos from drones and satellites helps to optimize the land management and prevent crop diseases.
The training of machine learning models is not possible without prior data labeling. Data annotation for agriculture industry uses the following principal types:
- Image annotation. Before starting any training of the model, it's important to label all the raw data taken from drones and other sensors. With data annotation in agriculture, the outcome will be more accurate.
- Object detection. This type of annotation helps to locate different objects in the image. This is done by marking the objects with bounding boxes. This way, we help the models recognize the objects better and consider them in future crop analysis (e.g., livestock management).
- Semantic segmentation. This type of annotation is widely used for detailed land monitoring. We label every pixel of the image, classifying different groups of objects. You can, for example, differentiate between crops types or water sources.
The Application of Data Annotation in Agriculture
To better understand the significance of data annotation for agriculture, let's dive deep into the examples of its application. The usage of machine learning gains popularity in the following activities:
- Monitoring of crop health. With annotated data, the machine learning models can better identify plants. If trained correctly, they will detect the first signs of diseases, any nutrient deficiencies, or water shortages.
- Weed and pest detection. With data labeling in agriculture, the cameras can identify pests and weeds as soon as they appear. The usage of AI reduces manual intervention, at the same time allowing timely and precise control of crops.
- Yield prediction. The analysis of crops data for some period of time allows creating yield predictions. Annotation contributes to calculation of plant growth, blossom, and health indicators.
- Animal welfare management. Annotation of both images and videos is later used for the training of monitoring models. They not only detect livestock, but also identify their behavior, health, and interactions.
- Species recognition. With the correct annotation, the models can identify various crop species from drone images and videos. This is especially useful in automated harvesting and in farmlands, cultivating multiple cultures.
Data Annotation and Agricultural Productivity
With data labeling for agriculture, machine learning and artificial intelligence models become more efficient. This converts into more precise predictions, improved analysis, and more accurate preventive measures. As a result, we can interpret data better and optimize the usage of water, fertilizers, or treatments.
In cases where we target weed and pest detection, data annotation helps us with timely intervention. The treatment becomes tailored for every species, and we avoid unnecessary chemical usage.
Data annotation for crop life cycle contributes to improved supply chain and sales management, which helps to reduce losses. The same applies to livestock management. Any health and behavior issues can be monitored now, improving our timely responses and preventive measures. With advanced analysis, farmers can also improve their productivity and profitability operations. The more accurate technologies we deploy, the higher performance and better quality of agriculture we'll get.
Some Future Prospects
The usage of ML models in agriculture continues picking up steam, and data annotation will be its integral part. As new sensors and sophisticated image data add on, data annotation plays a role of a gatekeeper. It allows handling their complexity and variety. Its role is not only about creating more precise monitoring. With it, we can create a more elaborated management of the agricultural landscape.
In the coming years, data annotation will be essential for training autonomous and robotic systems. It will also be part of predictive analytics for weather conditions and agricultural practices, for biotechnologies and supply chain. According to Markets and Markets, by 2028 the leading areas of AI applications will remain drone analytics, precision farming, and agriculture robots. That's why, efficient planning with quality training of AI-models will be key.
Final Thoughts
Artificial intelligence in agriculture is already here. It revolutionizes the way we harvest, manage livestock, and improve crops. As an inevitable part of AI learning, data annotation guides us through tons of raw data. It labels and prepares it for further model's training. In agriculture, data annotation mostly works with images from drones, satellites, and various sensors. Meticulous labeling contributes to improved efficiency of AI-models.
As a result, we benefit from outstanding sustainability and productivity results across all agricultural sectors. We already start seeing higher yields, reduced chemicals' usage, and preventive measures. Continuing with advanced data annotation techniques will therefore be crucial for the future agriculture industry. The promising AI-models will ensure food security in an increasingly unpredictable world.