48 GERMINATION.CA NOVEMBER 2017 WITH THE FORECAST at your fingertips and RTK systems taking the guess- work out of straight rows, it’s hard to believe that it’s only been 80 years since horses outnumbered trac- tors on the farm. Arguably, Norman Borlaug’s Green Revolution, which laid the foundation for agriculture as we know it today, is still going strong — encompassing new and ever- evolving technologies, continuing to give birth to its own revolutions and innovations while reducing hunger in under-developed nations throughout the world. The Green Revolution began in the mid-1940s. However, the framework for the revolution was created three decades prior when German chemist Fritz Haber transformed nitrogen gas into a plant-available, digestible form: ammonia. The application of ammo- nia synthesis, scaled to industry by BASF’s Carl Bosch, allowed previously poor-producing soils to significantly increase crop yields. The advancements made in the wheat fields of Mexico would ulti- mately set a new path for agriculture, and set in motion an unparalleled era of research and discovery within the industry. As crop yields rose, human health and nutrition improved. By the latter half of the 20th century, the global population surpassed 7 billion, more than seven times the 1.6 billion the century began with. Today, the popu- lation continues to grow; inversely, THENEXTREVOLUTION Those in agriculture might be in the middle of the next revolution and not even know it, thanks to advancements in science, such as testing methods and DNA sequencing. Laura Handke / SeedWorld.com farmland acreages decline each year, creating an insatiable demand for agriculture to produce more while using less. The Precision Agriculture Revolution Decreased acreage combined with a higher global population forced agriculture to advance within the parameters of precision. Today, seed placement, nutrient and crop protec- tion application, machinery, soil and root health, and data management all continue to be the focus of this preci- sion market. A 2016 study released by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports that precision agriculture continues to be adopted rapidly throughout the U.S. with the largest increases observed in acreages rather than individual farms; precision agriculture is used on more than 50 per cent of corn and soybean acres. With the rapid adoption of pre- cision agriculture, technology has become an integral management com- ponent in many operations. With new advancements continuing to material- ize in this sector, it’s hard to estimate exactly where in the precision agricul- ture revolution we are today. Brad Lubben, a University of Nebraska Extension associate profes- sor, estimates that we are somewhere in the middle, with data management expected to be on the next horizon within the industry. “Right now, we have the ability to produce an inordinate amount of data,” he says. “So the ques- tion becomes, ‘how do we actually manage it?’ Precision ag adoption is moving forward rapidly, but effec- tively utilizing all of the data cap- tured just hasn’t caught up yet.” The Root and Soil Health Revolution Where does this information leave us along the agriculture revolution highway? Many believe the next revo- lution will come as breakthroughs in soil and root health discovery. Long known to be the founda- tion of agriculture, soil health is generating renewed interest through- out the agriculture community. A number of companies are investigating how microbials and biologicals impact the microbiome and plants' overall ability to cope with abiotic stressors, such as soil salinity and drought.