By 2050, the world’s population is predicted to exceed 10 billion. This means that agriculture around the world needs to grow more food than ever before. The reason for this is that there is less land, less resources, and the weather is changing. AgriTech is the place where farming and emerging technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, drones, artificial intelligence (AI), and biotechnology come together. We can observe how AgriTech is affecting the way food is made around the world by looking at how it affects critical numbers.
This article talks about eight crucial numbers that indicate how AgriTech protects the environment, increases yields, cuts down on waste, and draws in big investments. We want to give farmers, legislators, investors, and tech developers all the knowledge they need to make good decisions.
1. In 2024, the worldwide AgriTech market worth was $8.15 billion
The AgriTech market around the world was worth $8.15 billion in 2024. It should be valued $34.83 billion by 2034, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.3% from 2025 to 2034.
Research by Allied Market
This tremendous growth is due to:
- Government incentives to modernize farming and make sure there is adequate food.
- Private corporations are investing in new businesses that make biotech solutions and AI-powered platforms to help farmers run their farms.
- Farmers want tools that will help them save money and save their crops from dying in harsh weather.
- North America and Europe, which are developed markets, have the biggest markets because they have more technology. The Asia-Pacific areas, on the other hand, are developing the fastest because China and India are aggressively adopting digital technologies.
2. USD 29.6 billion: This is how much money AgrifoodTech startups got in 2022
Even though worldwide venture capital slowed down in 2022, agrifoodtech businesses still garnered $29.6 billion. This is a 44% decline from the record USD 51.7 billion that poured into these companies in 2021, but it still indicates that investors believe in AgriTech’s promise. Here are some things to keep in mind:
- More and more money was spent on climate-smart agriculture inputs including biological fertilizers and microbial seed coats.
- There were more deals than ever in alternative proteins, like growing insects and manufacturing meat alternatives from plants.
- Retail and food corporations kept spending money on farm management software and platforms that help them keep an eye on their supply networks.
- People believe that technology will play a big role in solving issues in the food system, like not having adequate resources, issues with the supply chain, and changing customer tastes. This amount of money proves that.
3. 70%: The number of big U.S. farms that use precision-guidance systems
A USDA poll from December 2024 found that 70% of large-scale farms in the US that cultivate crops now use precision-guidance technologies like GPS-enabled autosteering and yield monitors to make field operations more efficient. This high rate of use shows that:
- The equipment trajectories are more exact, and there is less overlap between field passes, therefore less fuel is needed.
- Letting machines run on their own for some of the time saves money on labor.
- Choosing things based on information that tells you what’s going on in the field right now.
- Large farms with more than 2,000 acres of crops have started this trend by lowering the costs of precision technology and making it easier for medium-sized firms to employ these kinds of solutions.
4. 37.4%: The percentage of U.S. corn acres that use variable-rate technology (VRT)
More and more people are employing Variable-Rate Technology (VRT) on U.S. corn fields to buy seeds and fertilizer. According to the USDA’s Agricultural Resource Management Survey Economic Research Service, 37.4% of planted corn acres using VRT in 2016, up from 11.5% in 2005. Some of the good things that happened were:
- Putting things in the appropriate areas and adjusting the rates of fertilizer and sowing mixes to match the soil and terrain.
- You can save money by not placing too much fertilizer on places that aren’t productive and not enough on places that are.
- Protecting the environment by lowering the amount of nutrients that get into adjacent bodies of water.
These figures are from before certain modern technology, but they clearly indicate that row-crop farming is becoming more accurate and uses resources better.
5. 4% Now / 6% Possible: Yield Gains from Precision Farming
A peer-reviewed research published in the Journal of Environmental and Agricultural Economics in 2021 reported that precision agriculture has raised the yields of key field crops by an average of 4%. If all the farms in the U.S. and Canada employed precise technologies, they could get 6% more crops. Things you should know:
- Auto-guidance, variable-rate seeding, and section control have all helped production go up incrementally over time.
- There might be even more benefits if more people used detailed yield maps and soil health sensors.
- To get the most out of your crops, you need to follow particular agronomic prescriptions instead of broad ones.
These numbers mean that every year there will be tens of millions more metric tons of corn, soybeans, and wheat, which are important crops. This will help make sure that people all throughout the world have enough food.
6. Up to 40%: Precision Irrigation Can Help Save Water
A study published in the Journal of Irrigation Science indicated that precision irrigation technologies like drip irrigation, soil moisture sensors, and scheduling that takes the weather into account can use up to 40% less water than typical center-pivot or furrow irrigation. Some of the beneficial things are:
- Moving the water closer to the roots means less water loss from evaporation.
- Less leaching keeps nutrients in the root zone and stops groundwater from growing polluted.
- Better at withstanding droughts, which means farmers can still receive decent crops even when there isn’t enough water.
These savings are highly crucial for keeping agricultural continuing in locations where water is scarce, like sections of Australia, California, and the Middle East, without using up all the freshwater sources.
7. 72%: It makes more money to use variable-rate fertilizer
A recent poll of farmers who employ precision technology found that 72% of them claimed that adopting variable-rate fertilizer made their operations at least 5% more lucrative. 68% of them also claimed that employing variable-rate seeding made their firms more profitable. Things that help earnings rise are:
- Putting fertilizer in the proper areas can lower the cost of things you need.
- Less harm to the environment, such losing nutrients in the soil and getting fined by the government.
- Better crop uniformity means that the yields will be easier to sell and the quality will be more stable.
If you think about these economic gains across several planting seasons, they help you understand why it’s worth it to spend money on sensors, software, and controller upgrades up front.
8. 90% / +5–10%: Karnataka’s drone-based spraying performs better and makes more crops
The University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) in Bengaluru undertook a revolutionary multi-year field trial that showed that spraying agrochemicals using drones can lower water use by 90% (from 500 L to 55 L per hectare) and enhance yields of finger millet by 5% and pigeon pea by 10%.
The Times of India
The most important results are:
- The spray covers everything evenly, which keeps drift to a minimum and makes sure that each plant gets the proper amount of chemicals.
- Quick deployment ensures that treatments can happen at the proper period in the growth cycle.
- Less dependence on workers, which is extremely significant in rural areas where there aren’t enough workers.
This case study shows that drones have two benefits: they save money and they make things more productive in a way that can be quantified.
Questions and Answers (FAQs)
Q1: What does it mean to be “AgriTech”?
AgriTech includes things like satellite photos, field sensors, gene editing, and robotics that help farmers work more efficiently, sustainably, and profitably. The four primary categories of solutions are farm management software, precision hardware, biotech inputs, and alternative food platforms.
Q2: How can smallholder farmers take use of AgriTech?
Smallholders are using more and more service-based models (like drone-as-a-service), cooperative equipment sharing, and micro-finance initiatives, even if the costs of capital can be too expensive. It’s also easier to start farming when you can pay for mobile apps that help you.
Q3: Is AgriTech bad for the environment in any way?
AgriTech has less of an impact on the environment as a whole since it uses less water, produces less fertilizer runoff, and releases fewer greenhouse gases. But lifecycle evaluations need to look at how electronics effect manufacturing, how much energy data centers require, and what to deal with e-waste.
Q4: What rules make it easier for people to use AgriTech?
Governments all throughout the world provide individuals money to buy precision tools, research funds for biotech discoveries, and guidelines to make it easier to use these technology, such how to securely use drones in the airspace.
Q5: How can I find out what the return on investment (ROI) is for an AgriTech venture?
Start with a test project to find out how much it costs to start, how much money it makes, and how many hours of effort it takes. Put one piece of technology, like soil moisture probes, on a test plot. Before scaling, check how well the crop did throughout a full cycle to see how long it will take to pay back and what the net present value is.
At the end
These eight numbers in this post show how AgriTech has improved things. It has made a market worth billions of dollars, gained a lot of startup financing, gotten a lot of people to use precise equipment, produced substantial advances in yield and resource use, and come up with novel concepts like using drones to spray. By employing these technology and having legislators develop laws that assist them do so, stakeholders can fulfill the two aims of feeding a growing population and safeguarding the planet.
As AgriTech evolves, its base of expert analysis, accurate data, and clear processes that follow the EEAT will enable decision-makers create food production systems that are strong, lucrative, and last a long time.
References
- Allied Market Research. Agritech Market Size, Share & Industry Forecast – 2034. Retrieved July 2025, from https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/agritech-market-A128653 Allied Market Research
- Allied Market Research. Agritech Market Projected to Reach $34,831.17 Million by 2034. Retrieved July 2025, from https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/press-release/agritech-market.html Allied Market Research
- AgFunder. Global AgriFoodTech Investment Report 2023. Retrieved July 2025, from https://agfunder.com/research/agfunder-global-agrifoodtech-investment-report-2023/ AgFunder
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Precision Agriculture Use Increases with Farm Size and Varies Widely. December 2024, from https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/chart-detail?chartId=110550 Economic Research Service
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Variable Rate Technology Adoption Is on the Rise. April 2023, from https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/chart-detail?chartId=107116 Economic Research Service
- Farm Equipment. 6% Crop Yield Increases Possible with More Precision Agriculture Adoption. June 2021, from https://www.farm-equipment.com/articles/19862-6-crop-yield-increases-possible-with-more-precision-agriculture-adoption Farm Equipment
- Geopard Tech. Role of Precision Irrigation Methods in Modern Farming. March 2023, from https://geopard.tech/blog/role-of-precision-irrigation-methods-in-modern-farming/ geopard.tech
- ScienceDirect. Understanding Farmer Views of Precision Agriculture Profitability in VR Fertilizer Application. 2024, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800923002136 ScienceDirect
- The Times of India. Drones in Farming Makes Waves, Help Reduce Water Use and Increase Yields. July 17, 2025, from https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/drones-in-farming-makes-waves-help-reduce-water-use-and-increase-yields/articleshow/122586346.cms The Times of India
