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Market Snapshot: Precision Agriculture

Agriculture, in its most general sense, is the science and art of cultivating plants and livestock, and is credited with shifting civilization from hunter gatherers to permanent settlements. Today, the agricultural landscape is increasingly complex as society looks for new, more efficient, and environmentally sound ways to address the water-food-energy nexus. The USDA reports that within agriculture, the greatest technology push has been in precision agriculture (also known as site-specific management or smart agriculture) where sensing, information technologies, and mechanical systems enable crop and livestock management.

Major factors contributing to the growth of the smart agriculture market include the increasing adoption of advanced technologies in various agriculture applications such as precision farming, smart green house, livestock monitoring, and fish farm monitoring. Changing weather patterns due to increasing global warming have impelled the adoption of advanced farming technologies to enhance farm productivity and crop yield. Farmers or growers across the globe are increasingly adopting advanced farming devices and equipment such as steering and guidance, sensors, yield monitors, display devices, and farm management software. MarketsandMarkets reports that the global precision farming market is forecast to grow from $9.7 billion in 2023 to $21.9 billion by 2031 growing at a CAGR of 10.7% from 2023 to 2031.

While there are many factors driving growth in this space, the high cost of technologies, and limited exposure among farmers who would utilize them is seen as restraining the market. Furthermore, smart agriculture requires high initial investment, efficient farming tools, and skilled and knowledgeable farmers or growers. The USDA notes that despite the push toward integrating smart or precision techniques, acceptance by the agricultural community has been hesitant and weak, although most producers admit they will have to adopt these technologies eventually. Specific and recent trends in this area are addressed in the 2023 paper from USDA titled, Precision Agriculture in the Digital Era: Recent Adoption on U.S. Farms.

Key players in the precision farming market include Deere & Company (John Deere) (U.S.), Trimble Inc. (U.S.), AGCO Corporation (U.S.), AgJunction LLC (U.S.), Raven Industries, Inc. (U.S.), AG Leader Technology (US), Teejet Technologies (U.S.), Topcon (U.S.), Taranis (Israel), AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc (U.S.), ec2ce (Spain), Descartes Labs, Inc. (U.S.), Granular Inc. (U.S.), Hexagon AB (Brazil), Climate LLC (U.S.), and CropX Inc. (Israel). The leading players in this market have leveraged merger & acquisition, partnership, collaboration, and product launch strategies to grow in the global precision farming market.

The International Conference for On-Farm Precision Experimentation will be taking place in 2024 along with several other events happening in 2023 and 2024.

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Fusion Energy Overview

Fusion is a potential energy source and occurs when one or more lighter elements combine to form a heavier element, releasing energy in the process. [1] Devices designed to harness this energy are known as fusion reactors. [2]   A future fusion plant could use the heat produced by the fusion reaction to produce steam to drive turbines or generators that produce electricity. [3] For almost a century, scientists around the globe have been looking to recreate and harness the power of fusion energy. [4]  

Tokamak
Source: ITER

There are two commonly pursued technologies to create and control plasma. Magnetic confinement uses strong magnets to contain plasma. A widely used configuration known as a tokamak[5] uses powerful magnets to confine the plasma within a toroidal reaction vessel, with the magnetic fields keeping the plasma away from the walls of the vessel to prevent damage and unintended cooling of the plasma.[6]  

Examples of U.S. companies developing magnetic confinement systems are Commonwealth Fusion Systems, TAE Technologies, Tokamak Energy, Helion Energy, and Thea Energy. Inertial confinement uses high-power lasers or electrical discharges to compress a small capsule of fusion fuel to extreme temperatures and pressures for a short time. This approach is used, for example, in the National Ignition Facility at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. [7] Examples of U.S. companies developing inertial confinement systems are Xcimer Energy, Focused Energy, ZAP Energy, and Shine Technologies. In addition to these methods, several companies such as General Fusion,  are pursuing various other pathways to try to create and control fusion reactions, including a hybrid of both magnetic and inertial confinement approaches. [8]

Various fusion fuels are used to power these pursued pathways. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, once developed, first-generation fusion plants may likely use a combination of abundant deuterium and lithium as fuel. [9] Deuterium, lithium and tritium Deuterium-tritium is a highly studied fusion fuel and a likely basis for the first fusion power plants.[10] Lithium is a critical resource for fusion because of its material properties. Lithium is used to breed tritium, the key fuel for fusion. [11] The rare lithium-6 form of the metal, which makes up only 7.5 per cent of all naturally occurring lithium, is the most efficient for sustaining the fusion process. [12] Li-6 is banned in the U.S. because of the harmful mercury waste it generates. [13] So most fusion power concepts rely on “enriched” lithium, where the Li-6 content has been boosted. [14]

Several companies are investing in efforts aimed at commercializing fusion energy. [15] Many of these companies are startups that have raised over $100 million in the past few years. [16]  The global fusion energy market size is projected to reach $611.8 billion by 2034, expanding at a CAGR of 5.56% from 2025 to 2034. [17] 

Current State - Projections of the time to putting Fusion Energy on the Grid

As of October 2025, fusion reactors remain pre-commercial, with no system yet producing net energy. Fusion energy stakeholders provide varying timelines as to when fusion energy will become technically feasible as an energy source for the electrical grid and when it will become commercially viable.  Projections range from 10 years to several decades in the future. [18]   Some companies are claiming that they will achieve commercial fusion energy in the next few years[19] while other stakeholders and experts said fusion energy will take more than 20 years. The Fusion Industry Association reported that many commercial companies predict fusion industry will be commercially viable in the 2030’s time frame. [19] 

Source: The Global Fusion Industry in 2025—Fusion Industry Association

Other stakeholders and experts believe fusion energy might put electricity on the grid in 10 to 20 years, however, significant resources are required to do so.[20] The Figure below illustrates commercialization risks that fusion energy will face on the road to commercial deployment. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the aspirational timeline as shown is strongly dependent on the level of both public and private investments. [21]

Commercialization risks for fusion

Source. U.S. Department of Energy, Fusion Energy Strategy 2024

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