Smart farming: the technology sowing the seeds for the future

Soiless farming: producing more food, even in cities

Soilless farming refers to a set of cultivation techniques without a support medium like soil, where plants are fed a solution containing water and all the essential nutrients for their growth. Although this practice has really gained traction since the 2000s, its origins can be traced back several centuries to when it was used by the Aztecs².

Parmi ces techniques, l’hydroponie consiste à remplacer la terre par un substrat inerte et stérile – sable, billes d’argile... L’eau est apportée par des pompes et des gouttières. En aéroponie, les plantes sont suspendues en hauteur et les racines, à l’air libre, sont pulvérisées d’une brume enrichie de minéraux. En aquaponie, on combine le hors-sol et l’élevage d’organismes aquatiques, tels que les poissons : leurs déjections, riches en azote, en phosphore et en potassium, contribuent à nourrir les plantes. Ces dernières absorbent les nutriments et filtrent l’eau qui peut retourner aux poissons, formant ainsi un écosystème vertueux³. 

When these technologies are rolled out across several stacked layers in indoor intensive production units, they are called vertical farms. With their small footprint, these farms can mass-produce crops all year round, whatever the climate⁴.

Urban vertical farms have expanded significantly over the last 20 or so years. According to estimates, this market was worth approximately $12-15bn worldwide in 2024, representing annual growth of 10 to 12%. Europe is considered to be one of the frontrunners in these technologies⁵.

Soilless farming offers a wealth of advantages, including greater production (two to four times faster than traditional soil-based farming), especially in the case of vertical farms, and up to 90% less water and few pesticides6. This system is capable of producing throughout the year, regardless of the weather conditions, even in urban areas, meaning that they can be set up close to where consumers need them. 

Soilless farming obviously has its limitations. The initial investment costs (infrastructure, LED lighting, climate control systems, automation, etc.) are steep. Using artificial light sources, even energy-efficient systems, runs up electricity costs all year round, whereas soil-based farming relies on natural light, which is not only free but renewable. Before they can claim to be truly virtuous, vertical farms need to draw their power from a green energy source. As for LED lighting systems, their widespread use raises a challenge when it comes to recycling⁹.

This type of farming also calls for a specific set of skills, such as managing plants’ nutrient requirements, monitoring their pH levels and programming the right settings for the greenhouse’s climate control system, without forgetting any other technical systems installed in the greenhouse. Farm workers possessing the necessary smart farming skills are still few and far between.

Finally, just like traditional farming, soilless farming raises biodiversity and monoculture issues, especially since some plant varieties are neglected in favour of other species that are better suited to soilless systems.

Soilless farming may be a fast-developing sector with promising potential, but it still only represents a fraction of the crops grown around the world.

Connected precision agriculture

Precision agriculture refers to farming methods that use such technologies as the Internet of Things (IoT) - a network of connected objects and devices equipped with sensors that are capable of sending and receiving data between each other and also with other systems. Incorporating AI brings an additional dimension to precision farming systems by enabling farmers to manage and interpret the collected data more effectively.

Farmers currently use close to 100 million smart devices¹¹, and the global market of IoT solutions for the agricultural sector is expected to surge past $33bn by 2032. 

These technologies can help detect weeds, plants affected by diseases, and fruit maturity, size and quality, as well as reducing water use. The solutions available already offer high levels of precision.

From wheat to wine: the many applications for smart farming

Harvest Coordination App¹² is a mobile app that helps coordinate the harvesting process. Designed by VINCI Energies subsidiary Axians Business Applications, the app is used as a dashboard for combine harvester operators during harvests. It displays the fill rate gauge for the grain tank and allows them to anticipate the remaining work time by geolocating the vehicles. The app also indicates the crop moisture level, the yield per square metre and the quality of the harvested grain. 

Another telling example is the decision by the Château Larose-Trintaudon wine estate to entrust VINCI Energies subsidiary Actemium Bordeaux Process with installing smart sensors and automated systems. The devices are connected to a control system that allows the estate to check the temperature, pressure and level of the tanks, manage the wine transfer and cleaning processes, and track the fermentation parameters in real time. The overall goal is to bring greater control and quality to the wine-making process, while improving efficiency and profitability. 

However, wine producers or farmers with a limited Internet connection, which is often the case in rural areas, face additional costs when implementing systems that require real-time data transfers. Collecting, storing and protecting a large volume of data, which means that a robust and sometimes expensive infrastructure must be installed¹³.

Robotics to support farm workers

There is nothing new about robotics in the agricultural industry. For example, 25% of dairy farms are equipped with robotic milking systems, despite the major investment required to purchase them¹⁴. Automatic feeders and robot manure scrapers¹⁵ are also widely used. These devices eliminate some of the arduous manual tasks for breeders and farmers, which is beneficial for occupations that are sometimes plagued by a poor image and stereotyped as being physically demanding, unattractive and poorly paid¹⁶. Some robots are even more sophisticated with their ability to tailor feeding to the animal’s needs¹⁷ or predict diseases, such as by monitoring dairy cattle’s behaviour¹⁸. When it comes to crops, robots with an embedded GPS system and camera have been designed to remove weeds between crop rows, such as Dino, which has been engineered and manufactured in France by Naïo¹⁹. Dino cleans between garden crop rows and also between the plants in each row. VINCI Energies subsidiary Actemium Bordeaux Process has also developed an autonomous mobile robot for transporting grapes from the cellar to the tanks²⁰.

In most cases, adopting a robot can take the hard work out of certain tasks while saving considerable time. However, operators have to invest the necessary financial and human resources. They also need to change their work practices and acquire new skills.

New technologies can be applied to the agricultural industry to satisfy a range of needs, such as increasing yields and improving well-being at work for farmers, but developers can only roll out their solution if they are intimately familiar with the sector. Traditional expertise, such as knowledge of the farm or production site, livestock, crops and land, is still essential, even if only to choose, develop and integrate the right tool to meet the specific identified needs or restore operations if a technical problem arises. 

Sources :

¹ France 2030 : “French AgriTech supporting agricultural innovation” – https://www.info.gouv.fr/actualite/la-french-agritech-au-service-de-l-innovation-agricole 

² Agri France : “What does soilless farming or hydroponics involve?” – https://www.agri-france.com/en-quoi-consiste-une-agriculture-hors-sol-ou-hydroponique/  

³ Aquaponics, Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics  

⁴ “Vertical vegetable farms”, analysis by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food – https://agreste.agriculture.gouv.fr/agreste-web/download/publication/publie/Ana141/Analyse_1411907.pdf   

⁵ MarketsandMarkets : « Global Hydroponics Market Size, Growth Trends, and Future Outlook 2025-2027 » –https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/blog/FB/hydroponic-market 

⁶ Ibid. 

⁷ Métropoles du Sud : « Sky Greens » – https://metropolesdusud.com/sky-greens-1  

⁸ The Guardian : “The pharmacist who sells onions: Palestinians go hydroponic in Jordan’s Gaza camp” – https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/feb/05/palestinian-refugees-jerash-camp-jordan-hydroponic-horticulture  

⁹ NextWaste : “Challenges in recycling LED bulbs and lamps” –https://www.nextwaste.fr/defis-recycler-lampes-ampoules-led/  

¹⁰ The Agility Effect : « GoogLeaf Farms fait décoller la productivité de son agriculture verticale » – https://www.theagilityeffect.com/fr/article/goodleaf-farms-fait-decoller-la-productivite-de-son-agriculture-verticale/  

¹¹ DIGI : “IoT in Agriculture: 10 Use Cases for Smart Farming Technologies” – https://www.digi.com/blog/post/iot-in-agriculture  

¹² The Agility Effect : “GoodLeaf Farms boosts the productivity of its vertical farms” – https://www.theagilityeffect.com/en/article/precision-agriculture-with-iot-and-ai/  

¹³ DIGI : “IoT in Agriculture: 10 Use Cases for Smart Farming Technologies” – https://www.digi.com/blog/post/iot-in-agriculture  

¹⁴ Ouest France : “One in four dairy farms now uses a robotic milking system” – https://www.ouest-france.fr/economie/agriculture/elevage/une-exploitation-laitiere-sur-quatre-est-aujourdhui-equipee-dun-robot-de-traite-0d9daf42-fe91-11ef-9b78-58334960577c  

¹⁵ Ministry of Agriculture: “Farming robots: what’s the latest?” – https://agriculture.gouv.fr/robots-agricoles-ou-en-est 

¹⁶ Capijob : “Growing recruitment challenges in the agricultural sector” – https://www.capijobnew.com/les-defis-croissants-du-recrutement-dans-le-secteur-de-lagricultur-281  

¹⁷ Oxford Academic : Prediction of the daily nutrient requirements of gestating sows based on sensor data and machine-learning algorithms – http://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skad337  

¹⁸ Science Direct :  Discriminating pathological, reproductive or stress conditions in cows using machine learning on sensor-based activity data – http://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2022.107556  

¹⁹ Ouest France : “Dino: the eco-friendly crop weeding robot” – https://www.ouest-france.fr/economie/agriculture/essais-agricoles/avec-le-robot-dino-le-desherbage-des-legumes-est-ecolo-6651240   

²⁰ The Agility Effect : “Robots introduced to wine cellars” – https://www.theagilityeffect.com/en/article/robots-introduced-to-wine-cellars/