By RIO YAMAT Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) — When Russell Maichel started growing almonds, walnuts and pistachios in the 1980s, he didn’t own a cellphone. Now, a fully autonomous tractor drives through his expansive orchard, spraying pesticides and fertilizer to protect the trees that have for decades filled him with an immense sense of pride.
“The sustainability of doing things perfectly the first time makes a lot of sense,” the first-generation farmer told The Associated Press at CES 2025, where John Deere unveiled a fleet of fully autonomous heavy equipment, including the tractor Maichel has been testing on his northern California farm.
Sustainability is a key theme this year at the annual tech trade show in Las Vegas. From Volvo CEO Martin Lundstedt announcing their commitment to net-zero emissions by 2040 to Wisconsin-based OshKosh Corporation showing off its electric fire engines and garbage trucks, companies big and small are showcasing their green innovations and initiatives.
“We absolutely need more climate-smart technologies,” said Jacqueline Heard, CEO and co-founder of Enko Chem, which researches climate tech solutions in agriculture — an industry Heard says is “under a lot of pressure right now.”
That much is clear on the CES show floor, where farming is on full display and company leaders are highlighting the impacts of climate change and labor shortages on farmers.
Not far from John Deere’s booth where autonomous tractors and dump trucks are towering over conference attendees, Kubota, another equipment manufacturing company, is showcasing its AI technology that detects diseases in crops and sprays where pests have been identified.
Todd Stucke, president of Kubota Tractor Corporation, said AI is the future of farming, especially with “summers getting longer and storms getting stronger.”
Stucke himself grew up on a potato farm in Ohio. Each night after dinner, his father would scour the field for bugs and then send Stucke out to spray the crops with insecticides.
“We sprayed the whole field, but we might’ve only needed to spray a part of the field or a plant,” he said. “Take that analogy into vineyards, orchards and so forth, you don’t have to spray everything.”
This is known as “precision agriculture,” Heard said. “It allows farmers to really optimize their land.”
The idea, Heard said, is that farmers can expand the lifespan and improve the quality of their crops while using fewer chemicals, like pesticides and fertilizer.
“It’s good for the environment. It’s good for farmers,” she said.
Heard said she wouldn’t be surprised if AI can one day help farmers map out their land, showing them the different soil types and what kinds of crops would grow best there.
“It could be that with climate change, they should move to a crop that’s much more adapted to this new world,” she said.
Back at the John Deere booth, Maichel, a tree nut farmer, said he’s hopeful that advancements in AI will help him better manage the unpredictability of farming. Each year on his orchard is different from the last.
“There’s no sliding scale, per se, that we have to deal with as far as climate change goes,” he said. “We really bend to the climate that we’re dealt with. It’s not something I can predict. It’s really something we have to adapt to every growing season.”
If someone had told him just 10 years ago that a tractor would one day be driving itself through his orchard, he said he wouldn’t have believed it. But now, he says, he sees how this evolving technology can help him adapt to the changing industry and climate.
“We all need to eat, right?” Maichel said. “A farmer’s job is one that we all need.”
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Associated Press video journalist Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos contributed to this report.