Technology as a Solution: The plethora of problems stated in
the agriculture industry has many folds and will require multi-level
solutions. Governance, planning, infrastructure, business models, and
technology will act as key catalysts to drive effective changes. In this
case, technology can be used as an effective tool kit to address these
problems. Technologies such as AI, Big Data, IoT (Internet-Of-Things),
Agricultural-Automation, Blockchain, Genetics, Biotechnology, and
Geo-Satellite could be utilized as effective tools to facilitate the
agricultural industry; however, emerging economies face major challenges
in facilitating such technology, such as cost of deployment and existing
infrastructure. Effective utilization of this technology will require
the following:
- Infrastructure (power, communication, transportation, facilities)
- Education (knowledge, training institutions)
- Finance
- Research
- Manpower (skilled labor for various operations)
- Planning (governance)
- Support industries
AI, Big Data, and IoT require significantly advanced infrastructure
(data retrieval devices, data curation tools, ubiquitous devices, etc.)
to address the challenges posed by the agricultural sector of emerging
economies. All these technologies require significant amounts of skilled
manpower to design, extract, curate and execute operations. Most of this
information is also processed in proprietary enterprise systems which
make sense of the data. Unfortunately, most emerging economies cannot
facilitate such processes, and even in developed countries such as the
United States, home of the “Boston IoT Tomato Project”, development is
still contentious and requires several phases of improvement before
producing actionable outcomes that will lead to higher productivity and
efficiency.
9On the other hand, technologies such as Biotechnology and the Genetic
Modification of plant life have yielded far more actionable outcomes. In
developed countries such as the United States, scientists at or funded
through USDA have opened up new options for farmers responding to market
needs and environmental challenges. Many new plant varieties being grown
by farmers have been produced using genetic engineering, which involves
manipulating the plant’s genes through techniques of modern molecular
biology often referred to as recombinant DNA technology. However, such
processes require considerable amounts of safety and compliance
regulations. In the United States, USDA supports the safe and
appropriate use of science and technology, including biotechnology, to
help meet agricultural challenges and consumer needs of the
21st-century.
10 USDA plays a
key role in assuring that biologically altered plants and products
derived from those plants are safe to be grown and used in the United
States. Once those plants and products enter commerce, USDA supports
bringing them and other products to the worldwide market.
As described in this publication, most emerging economies face major
governance and infrastructure challenges that leave them unable to
create safe and transparent mechanisms. Research is time consuming,
costly, and requires considerable amounts of dedicated skilled manpower.
While some developing countries have produced successful results through
research, such as the high yielding variety of rice (IRRI) produced
through BRRI (Bangladesh Rice Research Institute) in Bangladesh, equal
amounts of resources and time should be dedicated to meet global
demands.
11 Agricultural automation or
machinery used in agriculture has been the pivotal tool for
industrialization. Most developed countries have utilized these machines
to exponentially change the production and efficiency of both plants and
livestock. Machines, such as an automated saw for rice fields, improve a
farmer’s capabilities to produce; however, the saying, “A machine is
only as good as its operator,” is a daunting reality in emerging
economies, as most farmers who lack the knowledge to effectively utilize
agricultural machinery resort to more traditional processes of farming.
Furthermore, the cost of such types of machinery and their ancillary
requirements, such as uninterrupted power supply or fuel, making them
difficult to adopt in emerging economies. As mentioned previously, most
farms in developing countries are smallholdings, and large farming
machinery such as the “In-Row Weeder” or “Harvester” are unnecessary
due to their size. This suggests that new tools, both specialized and
localized, are necessary to address the agriculture industry in emerging
economies. Unfortunately, most of those countries do not house companies
able to produce and deploy such products at scale, and without the
utilization of agricultural-machinery, it is difficult to attain a
prosperous agricultural industry.
Emerging technologies, such as blockchain, are offering solutions and
opportunities in the agricultural industry. Blockchain technology
requires less on-ground infrastructure and provides affordable access to
multiple sets of tools. Additionally, the skilled manpower required for
the technology can largely be pooled from existing resources placed in
other parts of the world; thus, the same pool of resources can be shared
by multiple parties across various geographic locations. Key challenges
in the adoption of blockchain are based on both understanding and
creating regulatory and compliance clarity within the agriculture
industry. There is no doubt that this technology will have a major
impact on the agricultural industry upon implementation.