Smart Tech
New Tech, Old School Methods in Agriculture
July 27, 2026 
I’ve been told for years that agriculture is a cyclical business. But that doesn’t mean every cycle has to be exactly the same as the one that came before.
I was reminded of this fact recently while looking at the topic of weed control. On an episode of our weekly video market update, CropLife Retail Week, Amy Asmus, Co-Owner of Asmus Farm Supply, and I were discussing some new weed control equipment that uses an electrical charge to “zap” weeds.
I viewed this advancement as a sign of how new technologies are reshaping agriculture, taking it down an entirely different path than it has followed in the past. But Asmus viewed this differently.
“It’s interesting because we’re returning to mechanical weed control, but in a much more targeted and advanced way,” she said. Asmus added that future weed management systems will likely combine precision application technologies with alternative control methods.
What I found interesting in this discussion is how the industry has progressed over the past three decades. This individual weed approach was the norm before the introduction of widespread control crop protection products such glyphosate. This led to a total broadcast approach to achieve weed control. Now, thanks to newer technologies capable of identifying individual weeds using artificial intelligence (AI) and selectively spraying them, we are back to dealing with weeds on an individual basis.
Weed control is not the only area of today’s ag retail world where this individual approach is becoming more mainstream. Recently, I was reviewing the use of adjuvants with biological products. In this sector, new application technologies such as drones and targeted spraying were projected to also increase the opportunities for an individual approach.
“New application technologies will accelerate specialization, where low carrier volumes increase intank concentration and magnify compatibility, foam/dispersion, and droplet-behavior risks,” says Priscila Castelani, Ph.D., Global Marketing and Research & Development Director for Crop Solutions at Indovinya. “Suppliers are already positioning dedicated low volume/drone adjuvants around retention/coverage, compatibility in concentrated mixes, and drift reduction. Industry leaders highlight drones as an emerging adjuvant opportunity precisely because low volume heightens the need for deposition and compatibility support.”
Castelani adds that AI and advanced analytics will help biologicals/adjuvants scale faster by compressing learning cycles.
Again, this is another example of agriculture using newer technologies to adopt a more specialized, individual approach to application compared with broadcasting. AI and newer technologies will bring a world of knowledge and experience to their users. But it seems as if making one-time mass agricultural practices more individual in scope might end up being their greatest contribution to the industry.
Ag retailers probably won’t have to implement all these alterations to their business models just yet. But planning ahead a bit is probably a very good idea because specialization thanks to AI use is only going to become more common across agriculture in the not-too-distant future.
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