18 INTERVIEW
Bright future forecast for digital transformation of Thai agricultural sector
Dr. Teera Phatrapornnant, NECTEC Researcher, Intelligent Transportation System Network (ITSN) Research and Development, Research Team of Digital Agricultural Technology (DAT). Thailand’s agricultural sector is in the process of digital transformation, with the Thailand 4.0 strategy driving this shift and enabling government policies that support the advancement of farms with modern technologies, precision agriculture tools and data-driven smart farming solutions. The National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) was established under the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) in 1986 to undertake, suppor t and promote Thailand’s research and development of electronics and computer technologies. One of its five industrial targets is to develop a smart farming technology and system to increase efficiency of the digital food chain such as: agricultural zoning management; mobile application for agriculture and registration of farmers; IT to support precision farming via a prediction, warning and communication system; and a plant disease/contamination diagnostic system. UPDATE interviewed Dr. Teera Phatrapornnant, NECTEC Researcher, Intelligent Transportation System Network (ITSN) Research and Development, Research Team of Digital Agricultural Technology (DAT). He was formerly Head of the Machine Vision Laboratory (MVL) at the NECTEC Advanced Automation and Electronics Research Unit (AAERU). Since when and why has Thailand adopted digital agriculture technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in the agriculture sector? NECTEC has brought digital technology to agricultural sector for more than 10 years. Digital technology enable us to digitise data while AI assists us to diagnose and analyse huge amounts of agriculture-related data necessary for decision-making as well as they replace manpower in some areas where it is lacking, such as experts in rice disease. If we can collect sufficient data
UPDATE 2/2021
for training a machine and then build automated system, there will be good decision-making support. Digital technology used in “Precision Farming” is a combination of various technologies, such as information technology, embedded systems, machine vision, photonics, wireless sensor network, to understand and manage the crop conditions in order to increase yield and quality. Precision farming practice can save cost and environment, for example, with conditions of soil and crop surveys, fertilisers and pesticides are applied in the right amount and time to ensure maximum efficiency. Data mining in agriculture are impor tant to farmers in order for them properly plan the management of their production areas. NECTEC has developed a decision support system, called Agri-Map, for Ministr y of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC) in order to analyse huge amounts of agricultural and related data, with almost 200 layers collected from all over Thailand, which suppor ts plantation zoning that shows whether an area’s conditions are suitable for selected plants.
