Karen Ross, secretary of the California Food and Agriculture Group, discusses the prospects for the 2025 agricultural industry.
Tawal, California – US agricultural industry It is used to overcome obstacles, but 2025 is being formed to be especially daunting. Lack of labor, water constraints, and threats waiting for tariffs are at the forefront of every farmer's mind.
“There are always challenges in agriculture, but many of them are now,” said Karen Ross, secretary of the California Ministry of Food and Agriculture. “I think this happens to every generation once that is only one bunch of stimulus forces.”
In 2023, the agricultural industry gave more than half of them Thousand dollars on receiving cash – $ 267.4 billion for crops and $ 249.6 billion for animal products. But 86 % of the fields are “small farms” – meaning they get under $ 350,000 a year. These are the fields that feel the most pressure.
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“Production agriculture is a tendency to marginally profitable,” said Rolan Fumasi, the head of Raboresearch. Food and trade. “So any kind of pressure on the markets … really puts a lot of pressure on farm finance, which is at best marginalized for most years.”

In 2023, the agricultural industry earned more than half of $ 267.4 billion for crops and $ 249.6 billion for animal products. (Hyoung Chang / Denver Post / Getty Images)
Now, farmers are turning to technology, and at the AG World Exhibition – the world's largest agricultural trade fair – producers were eager to show their latest crops.
Last week, more than 1,200 farm equipment manufacturers landed in the central California Valley last week in the hope of finding buyers. Tulare, California, has been in Agexpo since 1968, and this year, a keyword was building waves – AI.

A farmer in a farm vehicle John late. (John Deere / Fox News)
AI, or Artificial intelligence, Used from all methods. From driving of autonomous vehicles to performing difficult tasks to analyzing environmental change, artificial intelligence deals with everything from solving labor shortages to increased product performance – and farmers are in the aircraft.
“We are part of the first wave of artificial intelligence that allows us to see what happens in this regard,” said Paul Mixel, founder and CEO of carbon robotics. “Farmers are extremely curious. They are very innovative and innovative, and so they found what we were doing immediately.”
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MikeSell created its product, Laserweeder, which uses AI to identify weeds and kill them in the stem using laser. It not only reduces the physical complications associated with weeds, but also eliminates the need for herbicides.
“This can destroy the weeds that humans can't even see,” Mikesell added. We kill and kill them before stealing nutrients to compete with crops. “

Farmers turn to technology, including artificial intelligence, to meet the challenges they expect to face in 2025. (Sandy Huffaker / AFP through / Getty Images)
Another company uses AI to help one of the busiest and most threatening ecosystem employees – bees. According to the APIS M. project, the colony rate at more than 50 % observes unprecedented losses. Some beekeepers report 100 % of the loss of colony, a scary landscape for almond farmers, who trust the bees for pollination of their trees.
Beehero uses artificial intelligence sensors inside the bee to measure everything from acoustic signatures from the queen to the number of bee visits per minute to give farmers a real understanding of bee cover and pollination. This provides beekeepers with information to help the growth of bees.
“Beekeepers who work with us are 33 % lower than the industry average,” said Brent Wellington, Beehero product marketing director.
John Deir, who commands more than 40 % of the market share in the United States The agricultural machinery industry, It is also on the board with artificial intelligence. The company developed a 5ml autonomous tractor used for explosion spraying, essentially spraying nuts with chemicals to protect trees. Typically, this is the task that should be done at night, with a hazmat suit, which moves below 3 miles per hour, six to eight times a year – a deaf farmers very much prefer to move to cars .

Inside a farmer vehicle John late. (John Deere / Fox News)
Tick | Security | The last | Change | Changing % |
---|---|---|---|---|
From | Deere & CO. | 501.56 | +21.34 |
+4.44 % |
“The answer was really positive. The average age of farmers in the United States is about 58 years old and many work in the peak seasons 12 and 18 hours to manage their operations only because of a shortage of workforce. Production systems for small farming and grass.
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The AG industry is changing, but farmers and producers are alike accepting everything that is growing for their crops and animal production, Ross said.
“It is very important that we continue to look for automation, ease of work,” Ross said. “How we are about The use of technology, Autonomous, robotic vehicles, as a way to create new and better jobs for farm workers, as well as attract young people to create that energy and this creativity into new tools and technologies that are essential for our survival. “