SMART FARMS FOR SUSTAINABLE FOOD
In our school days, the teachers very often used the adjective ‘Smart Boy’ for those who did a lot of work with little or least effort. The adjective ‘Smart’ is not restricted to the education campus; it has been now widely used in other domains starting from agriculture to entertainment. Despite the wars from Ukraine –Russia to Israel-Gaza, the little statements are there in the domain of food crisis for sustainable health & happiness of the large common mass. The UNO has raised the 17 SDGs by the year 2030. Sustainable food is one of the issues that have been raised in the domain of sustainability. We need to be smart to address the most coveted issue for the forthcoming days. Smart farms are one of the most plausible solutions in this regard. Zero hunger is one of the goals of SDG 17 as visualized by the UNO in its vision document. Food security to end hunger can only be achieved by sustainable agriculture and the ‘Smart Farms’ can expedite the reality of the vision to root out the hunger of the millions in general and the hunger of the 3rd world population in particular. The world population is increasing day by day and much effort along with innovation is required to sustainably increase agricultural production. Agriculture as an occupation will be cultivated by 9.7 billion in 2050 with the inclusion of 4% extra land in this regard and the food production will have to increase by 60% to feed additional 2 billion people within the time frame. To address the looming food shortages, two potential approaches have emerged: expanding land use and adopting large-scale farming, or embracing innovative practices and leveraging technological advancements to enhance productivity on the existing farmland although a very meager amount of 4% land will become included extra in these consequences. The improvement of the global supply of food chain, decrease of food waste & losses and reach those who have been suffering from hunger and malnutrition are the important issues in this regard. Interlinkages among supporting sustainable agriculture, empowerment of small farmers, promotion of gender equality, ending of rural poverty, and healthy lifestyles with the emerging threats of climate change are some of the most important issues in this regard and addressing all these issues can only bring the rainbow in the mission of the end of hunger in the forthcoming years. Plants and their productivity are very important for retaining sustainability and the natural ecosystem as well as food security for the present generations. In the context of increasing population, global warming & climate change, plant protection level & plant breeding are very important in this regard to address all the hidden issues of sustainability. Innovative ideas are being solicited almost in every industry and the innovations are becoming essential to address global challenges, particularly in the field of sustainable agriculture. Smart farming empowered with AI can provide an efficient solution to address the emerging quest of agricultural sustainability challenges. The choice selection of crops, crop yield production, soil compatibility, classification, water management, cost savings, detection of leakage to irrigation systems, crop & soil manuring, detection of disease and pests, monitoring of livestock health, yield mapping and predictive analytics, automatic weeding & harvesting, sorting harvesting produce and surveillance are some of the most important attributes in the sustainable farming and all these issues and the challenges can be addressed by the modern innovations like AI, ML and Deep Learning. Plant phenotyping & the precision agriculture is very important and these can lay the foundation of the smart agriculture in the present context. Plant phenotyping & precision agriculture is the domain of information and technology to provide large amounts of data for effective management of data. Plant morphology, plant stress, crop yield, plant morphological and anatomical data and genotyping under different stress is very important to ensure the sustainability of agriculture production. Precision agriculture is based on the examination of spatial heterogeneity within the crop stand based on the spatial and temporal variability of the crops and the soil factors where the agriculture operation is going on. Machine learning can be used for crop selection & management, Deep Learning techniques can be used for crop selection along with its management. AI-powered predictive analytics can able to explore soil health, monitor weather conditions, recommend the application of fertilizer and pesticides, boost production with profitability and enable the farmer to make better decisions at every step during the crop production sequences. Automated farm machinery like driver-less tractors and smart irrigation. Smart spraying. Vertical farming software like gadgets can help to optimize precision agriculture. AI can play a very crucial role in the detection of leakage in irrigation systems and enable farmers to make necessary adjustments for the supply of the different micro-elements and trace elements required in agricultural practices. It can also detect soil health along with the health of the standing crops by scanning whether it has been suffering from any kind of health hazards either due to mineral deficiencies or the attack by pathogens. Random application of pesticides is one of the greatest concerns of nowadays but intelligent pesticide application can be optimized by the use of different sensors. Weeding & harvesting of the crop can also be modernized by the application of smart tools. Conventional agricultural practices not only generate problems in crop production but also it has been adding a lot of attributes that can create environmental hazards. The bio-concentration is the major issue and it has doubled the occurrence of diseases particularly those incurable like cancer mostly caused by mutagenic agents derived from pesticides. The natural soil reclamation facility has been degrading day to day due to the death of healthy soil flora & fauna. Eutrophication of the water bodies and the toxic levels in the drinking water is a serious concern and the agriculture sector is directly or indirectly responsible for this disaster. To ensure a sustainable environment, smart farming empowered with modern innovations has no substitute and it is the call of the time. The success of a human society is essentially dependent on the optimization of the agricultural systems as 50% of the world population is engaged in agriculture. The traditional farming method is becoming outdated on one hand and responsible for the environmental damage due to the ignorance of the farmers. The impact of automation has been tested in industries but now it is high time to open the door of agriculture for modern innovations like AI, ML and others for sustainable food on one hand and sustainable happiness on the other. What do you think?
