Precision Agriculture: A way forward

by Faizan Ali.

Humans are mainly defined by their activities what they do for a living and meeting their daily demands explain about their approach to life. In over 200,000 years of human history on planet earth agriculture has been a crucial element that helped in shaping and defining modern human being. Hunting was the primary approach for satisfying food demands, this was a risky practice owing to challenges involved in seizure and killing of wild animals. Later on, during the neolethic era cultivation and harvest of crop resulted in satisfaction of food demand in easier way. This assurance of sustainable food supplies resulted in to averting their nomadic hunting life style. Assurance of food alongside the modern industrial revolutions across has resulted in to a population boom and in just last 3 centuries the human population has jumped on from 1 billion to nearly 8 billion people. This explosive population growth is now testing planet’s food producing limit as we will have to come up with enough food to feed 2 billion extra mouths by the year 2050. In face of other major challenges like resource constraints, climate change, water issue, heat waves etc. this looks like an impossible task.

In previous century mankind was able to keep up with this challenge thanks to the “Green Revolution” of 1970’s, during which extensive use of resources, inputs and mechanization resulted in massive food productions. However, this all was achieved at a great climatic cost, today the issue is pretty much similar but conditions are even worse as the sector need to ensure food security in force of depleting resources and without causing any more harm to the planet. Father of the Green revolution Dr. Norman Borlaug was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1970 for his immense contribution to the revolution and surely anyone who can contribute to this challenge once again in face of these tough situations surely will deserve an equal honor.

Agriculture sector is center to many of our today’s mysteries, from resource constraint, food security to climate change. A recent estimate from the IPCC puts that about a quarter of the total greenhouse gas emissions today are caused by agriculture sector and is the single largest consumer of annual fresh water supplies. In face of all these challenges there is a dire need for such an ingenuity that ensures global food security in face of diminishing resource pool.

In this regard the modern precision agriculture and digital technological system can provide a necessary platform for dealing with these challenges. The technology use a range of sensors and data collection platforms focusing on observing numerous climate factors, providing real time forecasting for aiding daily operations and giving best time line for resource application (water, fertilizer etc.).

The smart climate systems can assist in reducing greenhouse gas emission by channelizing all farm operations in such a manner that it gives minimum emission in the end. Furthermore, remote sensing and ultrahigh resolution imagery sensors can be used for early detection of disease infestation in field and giving important information about possible dry spells in the field. This smart farm management systems can help crops to reach their full genetic potential without the excessive use of chemical inputs, ensuring higher yields as well reducing negative impact.

In addition to improving yield outputs the digital approach in agriculture field can also help in better supply chain management leading to fewer losses of uneaten products. The digital system enable a direct line of connection between the growers and major suppliers, resulting in fewer internodes that are meant to be passed earlier. This reduces the amount of crop wastage and also tends to add direct financial value in to farmer’s account which can help them in further improving their production and marketing strategy.

In this way the technology can help directly the segment of society that lifts the real burden of food chain, making it possible for everyone to have a meal on their table. Precision agriculture can bear fruitful outputs if more and more farmers are trained well in to these technologies making them a part of the network.

Moreover, state can play a key role in to this by enabling tech startups to create new platforms within the system, ensuring tax breaks for new companies to invest in long term development of sector, enabling data available in regional languages for better understating and communication. State governments can arrange training for framer skill enhancement ensuring a more inclusive growth throughout the society.

Early research and application of precision farming approaches in various countries has shown valuable outputs. Replicating such feat in less developed countries is not an easy task, but a joint public-private effort can definitely lead to a progressive start for securing the future in such nations. This paradigm shift can ultimately ensure global food security for the near future. Just like the change in method of our growing food altered the path of humanity progress some 12,000 years ago, the decisions made today will shape the future of mankind.