presentation on technology in agriculture

Agriculture’s connected future: How technology can yield new growth

The agriculture industry has radically transformed over the past 50 years. Advances in machinery have expanded the scale, speed, and productivity of farm equipment, leading to more efficient cultivation of more land. Seed, irrigation, and fertilizers also have vastly improved, helping farmers increase yields. Now, agriculture is in the early days of yet another revolution, at the heart of which lie data and connectivity. Artificial intelligence, analytics, connected sensors, and other emerging technologies could further increase yields, improve the efficiency of water and other inputs, and build sustainability and resilience across crop cultivation and animal husbandry.

The future of connectivity

As the world experiences a quantum leap in the speed and scope of digital connections, industries are gaining new and enhanced tools to boost productivity and spur innovation. Over the next decade, existing technologies like fiber, low-power wide-area networks (LPWAN), Wi-Fi 6, low- to mid-band 5G, and short-range connections like radio-frequency identification (RFID) will expand their reach as networks are built out and adoption grows. At the same time, new generations of these technologies will appear, with upgraded standards. In addition, new types of more revolutionary—and more capital-intensive—frontier connectivity, like high-band 5G and low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites, will begin to come online.

Together, these technological developments will unlock powerful new capabilities across industries. Near-global coverage will allow the expansion of use cases even to remote areas and will enable constant connectivity universally. Massive use of Internet of Things (IoT) applications and use cases will be enabled as new technologies allow very high device densities. And mission-critical services will take advantage of ultralow-latency, high-reliability, and high-security connections.

Without a solid connectivity infrastructure, however, none of this is possible. If connectivity is implemented successfully in agriculture, the industry could tack on $500 billion in additional value to the global gross domestic product by 2030, according to our research. This would amount to a 7 to 9 percent improvement from its expected total and would alleviate much of the present pressure on farmers. It is one of just seven sectors that, fueled by advanced connectivity, will contribute $2 trillion to $3 trillion in additional value to global GDP over the next decade, according to research by the McKinsey Center for Advanced Connectivity  and the McKinsey Global Institute  (MGI) (see sidebar “The future of connectivity”).

Demand for food is growing at the same time the supply side faces constraints in land and farming inputs. The world’s population is on track to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, 1 The World Population Prospects: 2015 Revision, United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, 2015. requiring a corresponding 70 percent increase in calories available for consumption, even as the cost of the inputs needed to generate those calories is rising. 2 World Resources Report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future, United Nations, World Resources Institute, and the World Bank, 2013. By 2030, the water supply will fall 40 percent short of meeting global water needs, 3 World Could Face Water Availability Shortfall by 2030 if Current Trends Continue, Secretary-General Warns at Meeting of High-Level Panel, United Nations, 2016. and rising energy, labor, and nutrient costs are already pressuring profit margins. About one-quarter of arable land is degraded and needs significant restoration before it can again sustain crops at scale. 4 The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture: Managing systems at risk, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Earthscan, 2011. And then there are increasing environmental pressures, such as climate change and the economic impact of catastrophic weather events, and social pressures, including the push for more ethical and sustainable farm practices, such as higher standards for farm-animal welfare and reduced use of chemicals and water.

To address these forces poised to further roil the industry, agriculture must embrace a digital transformation enabled by connectivity. Yet agriculture remains less digitized compared with many other industries globally. Past advances were mostly mechanical, in the form of more powerful and efficient machinery, and genetic, in the form of more productive seed and fertilizers. Now much more sophisticated, digital tools are needed to deliver the next productivity leap. Some already exist to help farmers more efficiently and sustainably use resources, while more advanced ones are in development. These new technologies can upgrade decision making, allowing better risk and variability management to optimize yields and improve economics. Deployed in animal husbandry, they can enhance the well-being of livestock, addressing the growing concerns over animal welfare.

Demand for food is growing at the same time the supply side faces constraints in land and farming inputs.

But the industry confronts two significant obstacles. Some regions lack the necessary connectivity infrastructure, making development of it paramount. In regions that already have a connectivity infrastructure, farms have been slow to deploy digital tools because their impact has not been sufficiently proven.

The COVID-19 crisis has further intensified other challenges agriculture faces in five areas: efficiency, resilience, digitization, agility, and sustainability. Lower sales volumes have pressured margins, exacerbating the need for farmers to contain costs further. Gridlocked global supply chains have highlighted the importance of having more local providers, which could increase the resilience of smaller farms. In this global pandemic, heavy reliance on manual labor has further affected farms whose workforces face mobility restrictions. Additionally, significant environmental benefits from decreased travel and consumption during the crisis are likely to drive a desire for more local, sustainable sourcing, requiring producers to adjust long-standing practices. In short, the crisis has accentuated the necessity of more widespread digitization and automation, while suddenly shifting demand and sales channels have underscored the value of agile adaptation.

Current connectivity in agriculture

In recent years, many farmers have begun to consult data about essential variables like soil, crops, livestock, and weather. Yet few if any have had access to advanced digital tools that would help to turn these data into valuable, actionable insights. In less-developed regions, almost all farmwork is manual, involving little or no advanced connectivity or equipment.

Even in the United States, a pioneer country in connectivity, only about one-quarter of farms currently use any connected equipment or devices to access data, and that technology isn’t exactly state-of-the-art, running on 2G or 3G networks that telcos plan to dismantle or on very low-band IoT networks that are complicated and expensive to set up. In either case, those networks can support only a limited number of devices and lack the performance for real-time data transfer, which is essential to unlock the value of more advanced and complex use cases.

Nonetheless, current IoT technologies running on 3G and 4G cellular networks are in many cases sufficient to enable simpler use cases, such as advanced monitoring of crops and livestock. In the past, however, the cost of hardware was high, so the business case for implementing IoT in farming did not hold up. Today, device and hardware costs are dropping rapidly, and several providers now offer solutions at a price we believe will deliver a return in the first year of investment.

These simpler tools are not enough, though, to unlock all the potential value that connectivity holds for agriculture. To attain that, the industry must make full use of digital applications and analytics, which will require low latency, high bandwidth, high resiliency, and support for a density of devices offered by advanced and frontier connectivity technologies like LPWAN, 5G, and LEO satellites (Exhibit 1).

The challenge the industry is facing is thus twofold: infrastructure must be developed to enable the use of connectivity in farming, and where connectivity already exists, strong business cases must be made in order for solutions to be adopted. The good news is that connectivity coverage is increasing almost everywhere. By 2030, we expect advanced connectivity infrastructure of some type to cover roughly 80 percent of the world’s rural areas; the notable exception is Africa, where only a quarter of its area will be covered. The key, then, is to develop more—and more effective—digital tools for the industry and to foster widespread adoption of them.

As connectivity increasingly takes hold, these tools will enable new capabilities in agriculture:

• Massive Internet of Things. Low-power networks and cheaper sensors will set the stage for the IoT to scale up, enabling such use cases as precision irrigation of field crops, monitoring of large herds of livestock, and tracking of the use and performance of remote buildings and large fleets of machinery.
• Mission-critical services. Ultralow latency and improved stability of connections will foster confidence to run applications that demand absolute reliability and responsiveness, such as operating autonomous machinery and drones.
• Near-global coverage. If LEO satellites attain their potential, they will enable even the most remote rural areas of the world to use extensive digitization, which will enhance global farming productivity.

Connectivity’s potential for value creation

By the end of the decade, enhanced connectivity in agriculture could add more than $500 billion to global gross domestic product, a critical productivity improvement of 7 to 9 percent for the industry. 5 This represents our estimate of the total potential for value added in agricultural production; it is not an estimate of the agritech and precision-agriculture market size. Much of that value, however, will require investments in connectivity that today are largely absent from agriculture. Other industries already use technologies like LPWAN, cloud computing, and cheaper, better sensors requiring minimal hardware, which can significantly reduce the necessary investment. We have analyzed five use cases—crop monitoring, livestock monitoring, building and equipment management, drone farming, and autonomous farming machinery—where enhanced connectivity is already in the early stages of being used and is most likely to deliver the higher yields, lower costs, and greater resilience and sustainability that the industry needs to thrive in the 21st century (Exhibit 2).

It’s important to note that use cases do not apply equally across regions. For example, in North America, where yields are already fairly optimized, monitoring solutions do not have the same potential for value creation as in Asia or Africa, where there is much more room to improve productivity. Drones and autonomous machinery will deliver more impact to advanced markets, as technology will likely be more readily available there (Exhibit 3).

About the use-case research

The value of our agriculture-connectivity use cases resides primarily in labor efficiencies, input optimization, yield increases, reduced overhead, and improvements in operation and maintenance of machinery. Each use case enables a series of improvement levers in those areas that promise to enhance the productivity of farming (exhibit).

We applied those levers to the profitability drivers of agricultural production to derive an economic potential for the industry as a whole. For example, a use case might enable a 5 to 10 percent reduction in fertilizer usage, saving costs for the farmer, or enable 3 percent higher yields, leading to greater revenues for the farmer. In fact, higher yields represent the largest opportunity, with advanced connectivity potentially adding some $350 billion of value to global food production without additional inputs or labor costs.

Potential value initially will accrue to large farms that have more investing power and better incentives to digitize. Connectivity promises easier surveying of large tracts, and the fixed costs of developing IoT solutions are more easily offset in large production facilities than on small family farms. Crops like cereals, grains, fruits, and vegetables will generate most of the value we identified, for similar reasons. Connectivity enables more use cases in these sectors than in meat and dairy, because of the large average size of farms, relatively higher player consolidation, and better applicability of connected technologies, as IoT networks are especially adapted to static monitoring of many variables. It’s also interesting to note that Asia should garner about 60 percent of the total value simply because it produces the biggest volume of crops (see sidebar “About the use-case research”).

Use case 1: Crop monitoring

Connectivity offers a variety of ways to improve the observation and care of crops. Integrating weather data, irrigation, nutrient, and other systems could improve resource use and boost yields by more accurately identifying and predicting deficiencies. For instance, sensors deployed to monitor soil conditions could communicate via LPWAN, directing sprinklers to adjust water and nutrient application. Sensors could also deliver imagery from remote corners of fields to assist farmers in making more informed and timely decisions and getting early warnings of problems like disease or pests.

Smart monitoring could also help farmers optimize the harvesting window. Monitoring crops for quality characteristics—say, sugar content and fruit color—could help farmers maximize the revenue from their crops.

Most IoT networks today cannot support imagery transfer between devices, let alone autonomous imagery analysis, nor can they support high enough device numbers and density to monitor large fields accurately. Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and 5G promise to solve these bandwidth and connection-density issues. The use of more and smoother connections between soil, farm equipment, and farm managers could unlock $130 billion to $175 billion in value by 2030.

Use case 2: Livestock monitoring

Preventing disease outbreaks and spotting animals in distress are critical in large-scale livestock management, where most animals are raised in close quarters on a regimen that ensures they move easily through a highly automated processing system. Chips and body sensors that measure temperature, pulse, and blood pressure, among other indicators, could detect illnesses early, preventing herd infection and improving food quality. Farmers are already using ear-tag technology from providers such as Smartbow (part of Zoetis) to monitor cows’ heat, health, and location, or technology from companies such as Allflex to implement comprehensive electronic tracing in case of disease outbreaks.

Similarly, environmental sensors could trigger automatic adjustments in ventilation or heating in barns, lessening distress and improving living conditions that increasingly concern consumers. Better monitoring of animal health and growth conditions could produce $70 billion to $90 billion in value by 2030.

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Use case 3: building and equipment management.

Chips and sensors to monitor and measure levels of silos and warehouses could trigger automated reordering, reducing inventory costs for farmers, many of whom are already using such systems from companies like Blue Level Technologies. Similar tools could also improve shelf life of inputs and reduce post-harvest losses by monitoring and automatically optimizing storage conditions. Monitoring conditions and usage of buildings and equipment also has the potential to reduce energy consumption. Computer vision and sensors attached to equipment and connected to predictive-maintenance systems could decrease repair costs and extend machinery and equipment life.

Such solutions could achieve $40 billion to $60 billion in cost savings by 2030.

Use case 4: Farming by drone

Agriculture has been using drones for some two decades, with farmers around the world relying on pioneers like Yamaha’s RMAX remote-controlled helicopter to help with crop spraying. Now the next generation of drones is starting to impact the sector, with the ability to survey crops and herds over vast areas quickly and efficiently or as a relay system for ferrying real-time data to other connected equipment and installations. Drones also could use computer vision to analyze field conditions and deliver precise interventions like fertilizers, nutrients, and pesticides where crops most need them. Or they could plant seed in remote locations, lowering equipment and workforce costs. By reducing costs and improving yields, the use of drones could generate between $85 billion and $115 billion in value.

Use case 5: Autonomous farming machinery

More precise GPS controls paired with computer vision and sensors could advance the deployment of smart and autonomous farm machinery. Farmers could operate a variety of equipment on their field simultaneously and without human intervention, freeing up time and other resources. Autonomous machines are also more efficient and precise at working a field than human-operated ones, which could generate fuel savings and higher yields. Increasing the autonomy of machinery through better connectivity could create $50 billion to $60 billion of additional value by 2030.

Additional sources of value

Connected technologies offer an additional, indirect benefit, the value of which is not included in the estimates given in these use cases. The global farming industry is highly fragmented, with most labor done by individual farm owners. Particularly in Asia and Africa, few farms employ outside workers. On such farms, the adoption of connectivity solutions should free significant time for farmers, which they can use to farm additional land for pay or to pursue work outside the industry.

We find the value of deploying advanced connectivity on these farms to achieve such labor efficiencies represents almost $120 billion, bringing the total value of enhanced connectivity from direct and indirect outcomes to more than $620 billion by 2030. The extent to which this value will be captured, however, relies largely on advanced connectivity coverage, which is expected to be fairly low, around 25 percent, in Africa and poorer parts of Asia and Latin America. Achieving the critical mass of adopters needed to make a business case for deploying advanced connectivity also will be more difficult in those regions, where farming is more fragmented than in North America and Europe.

Connected world: An evolution in connectivity beyond the 5G revolution

Implications for the agricultural ecosystem.

As the agriculture industry digitizes, new pockets of value will likely be unlocked. To date, input providers selling seed, nutrients, pesticides, and equipment have played a critical role in the data ecosystem because of their close ties with farmers, their own knowledge of agronomy, and their track record of innovation. For example, one of the world’s largest fertilizer distributors now offers both fertilizing agents and software that analyzes field data to help farmers determine where to apply their fertilizers and in what quantity. Similarly, a large-equipment manufacturer is developing precision controls that make use of satellite imagery and vehicle-to-vehicle connections to improve the efficiency of field equipment.

Advanced connectivity does, however, give new players an opportunity to enter the space. For one thing, telcos and LPWAN providers have an essential role to play in installing the connectivity infrastructure needed to enable digital applications on farms. They could partner with public authorities and other agriculture players to develop public or private rural networks, capturing some of the new value in the process.

Agritech companies are another example of the new players coming into the agriculture sphere. They specialize in offering farmers innovative products that make use of technology and data to improve decision making and thereby increase yields and profits. Such agritech enterprises could proffer solutions and pricing models that reduce perceived risk for farmers—with, for example, subscription models that remove the initial investment burden and allow farmers to opt out at any time—likely leading to faster adoption of their products. An Italian agritech is doing this by offering to monitor irrigation and crop protection for wineries at a seasonal, per-acre fee inclusive of hardware installation, data collection and analysis, and decision support. Agritech also could partner with agribusinesses to develop solutions.

Still, much of this cannot happen until many rural areas get access to a high-speed broadband network. We envision three principal ways the necessary investment could take place to make this a reality:

• Telco-driven deployment. Though the economics of high-bandwidth rural networks have generally been poor, telcos could benefit from a sharp increase in rural demand for their bandwidth as farmers embrace advanced applications and integrated solutions.
• Provider-driven deployment. Input providers, with their existing industry knowledge and relationships, are probably best positioned to take the lead in connectivity-related investment. They could partner with telcos or LPWAN businesses to develop rural connectivity networks and then offer farmers business models integrating connected technology and product and decision support.
• Farmer-driven deployment. Farm owners, alone or in tandem with LPWAN groups or telcos, could also drive investment. This would require farmers to develop the knowledge and skills to gather and analyze data locally, rather than through third parties, which is no small hurdle. But farmers would retain more control over data.

How to do it

Regardless of which group drives the necessary investment for connectivity in agriculture, no single entity will be able to go it alone. All of these advances will require the industry’s main actors to embrace collaboration as an essential aspect of doing business. Going forward, winners in delivering connectivity to agriculture will need deep capabilities across various domains, ranging from knowledge of farm operations to advanced data analytics and the ability to offer solutions that integrate easily and smoothly with other platforms and adjacent industries. For example, data gathered by autonomous tractors should seamlessly flow to the computer controlling irrigation devices, which in turn should be able to use weather-station data to optimize irrigation plans.

Connectivity pioneers in the industry, however, have already started developing these new capabilities internally. Organizations prefer keeping proprietary data on operations internal for confidentiality and competitive reasons. This level of control also makes the data easier to analyze and helps the organization be more responsive to evolving client needs.

But developing new capabilities is not the end game. Agriculture players able to develop partnerships with telcos or LPWAN players will gain significant leverage in the new connected-agriculture ecosystem. Not only will they be able to procure connectivity hardware more easily and affordably through those partnerships, they will also be better positioned to develop close relationships with farmers as connectivity becomes a strategic issue. Input providers or distributors could thus find themselves in a connectivity race. If input providers manage to develop such partnerships, they could connect directly with farmers and cut out distributors entirely. If distributors win that race, they will consolidate their position in the value chain by remaining an essential intermediary, closer to the needs of farmers.

The public sector also could play a role by improving the economics of developing broadband networks, particularly in rural areas. For example, the German and Korean governments have played a major role in making network development more attractive by heavily subsidizing spectrum or providing tax breaks to telcos. 6 “Das Breitbandförderprogramm des Bundes” [in German], Bundesministerium für Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur, 2020, bmvi.de; 5G in Korea: Volume 1: Get a taste of the future, Samsung Electronics, 2019, samsungnetworks.com. Other regions could replicate this model, accelerating development of connective products by cost-effectively giving input providers and agritech companies assurance of a backbone over which they could deliver services. Eventual deployment of LEO satellite constellations would likely have a similar impact.

Agriculture, one of the world’s oldest industries, finds itself at a technological crossroads. To handle increasing demand and several disruptive trends successfully, the industry will need to overcome the challenges to deploying advanced connectivity. This will require significant investment in infrastructure and a realignment of traditional roles. It is a huge but critical undertaking, with more than $500 billion in value at stake. The success and sustainability of one of the planet’s oldest industries may well depend on this technology transformation, and those that embrace it at the outset may be best positioned to thrive in agriculture’s connectivity-driven future.

Lutz Goedde is a senior partner and global leader of McKinsey’s Agriculture Practice in the Denver office; Joshua Katz is a partner in the Stamford office; and Alexandre Menard is a senior partner in the Paris office, where Julien Revellat is an associate partner.

The authors wish to thank Nicolas D. Estais, Claus Gerckens, Vincent Tourangeau, and the McKinsey Center for Advanced Connectivity for their contributions to the article.

This article was edited by Daniel Eisenberg, a senior editor in the New York office.

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Smart Farming With Technology – PowerPoint Presentation

• by Refresh Science
• October 15, 2021 January 6, 2022

Agriculture Years Ahead: Smart Farming with IoT Technology

Farming has been the oldest sign of human civilization. Through times, we as a human find several damaging effects of our ways in growing crops to the environment including the flora and fauna. To restore the damages, people nowadays develop smart farming with IoT . Not only to revive nature but smart farming is designed to bring more benefits also like higher profit, efficient planting process, premium harvest , and others. More details are presented below.

What is Smart Farming in IoT?

Internet of Things includes enhanced objects with technology in processing, sensors, and more that can send and receiving data to other networks. There have been examples of IoT in daily activities like home automation to save energy, traffic control, NFC tag, etc. In agriculture, technologies also have been involved and developed for years. This is called smart farming.

The integration between technology and farmers’ skills is aimed to produce the best quality and quantity of the commodity. Humans used to take all the roles in farming from planting, growing, harvesting, checking, and so on. Yet, with smart farming, some jobs are taken over by technology including sensors, drones, AI , and robotics to optimize the process and especially to ease the farmers.

Smart Farming Techniques

Technologies in farming have been utilized in numerous ways. Each kind is installed for a different purpose. Based on the functions, here are some techniques in using technology for smart farming.

• Field mapping or data collection: sensor technology is set up to measure environmental aspects such as humidity, temperature, light intensity, wind, water/rainfall, soil composition, and more. Then GPS and GIS support the bigger picture of the map by providing the geospatial data.
• Predictive analytics: based on data required from field mapping, several types of analytic software can predict and suggest the needed actions. Some even are equipped with alert systems of discrepancies or pest attacks.
• Data saving: using cloud-based, the regularly obtained data are uploaded as a record for future decision making. They are also shareable for wider area analytics.
• Tracking and monitoring: this technique might require cameras, drones, tags, and GPS. Drones and cameras provide a visual of the field. Then, tags and GPS supply precise coordinate location of livestock.
• Labor work: similar to automation, drones, and robotics are helpful to do labor work such as planting seeds, watering the plant, harvesting, spraying the pesticides, milking the cows, picking fruits, irrigating, and more.
• Warehousing: in tropical areas like India, farmers are utilizing solar-powered refrigerators to store the fruits and vegetables right on the farm. Since greens and fruits are prone to get withered, storing them in fridges directly is a smart way to provide fresh commodities.
• Saving energy: also using automation, a system could be built in the farm to cut down energy consumption. Smart irrigation could automatically turn the machine off when a sufficient amount of water in the soil is reached. Drone-spraying only on the necessary spots could prevent polluting the land.

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How is smart farming used.

Generally, smart farming with IoT is set up to overcome certain problems or to reach some goals. As there are various techniques, it is essential to identify the gap and the proper technologies demanded. Many parts of farming could be enhanced with technology like tags in cows, the sensor in soil, picking robots , and more. After setting up the technology, a regular check is needed to see the tech’s performance and the result.

Is Smart farming Profitable?

Indeed technology brings positive impacts to farm management. As the products increase, more profit could be generated. Smart farming also helps farmers to distribute their commodities to the most rewarding markets or buyers. Some software connects the farmers to connect with the nearest potential buyers. Despite the gained earnings, farmers should be aware also of the maintenance and installation costs. Hence, profit is relative and may differ for each farmer.

What are the Benefits of Smart Farming?

• Improved products With high-quality control and experiments, nowadays many farming ‘companies’ produce vegetables with a certain taste that is different from other vegetables. The greens mostly are categorized as organic and pesticide-free .
• Precise data Assisted with tools, predictions or actions can be made of accurate data. Because certain plants are better in high temperatures, crops rotation is easier to decide. The data can be saved and used as a reference in the future if there is a similar condition coming up.
• Environmental friendly As farmers could minimize pesticide use, irrigate water sufficiently, manage waste efficiency, current farming damages are slowly getting revived. It is predicted that years from now, farmers could build a farm with varied commodities without removing the endemic flora and fauna.
• Efficient management and cost-effective As many labor works are done by the technology, the management costs can be reduced or allocated to maintain the technology. The farmers could also be away, but keep controlling the farm from far away.
• Low risk The technology could predict any disaster that might happen to the farm whether it is viral diseases, climate changes, or others. This helps farmers to be well-prepared.

Benefits of Smart Farming

What are the Disadvantages of Smart Farming?

Despite the benefits above, smart farming also carries several potential risks. The biggest of them is prone to be damaged. Without any regular care, technology is prone to get broken by natural factors like heavy rain , strong wind, thunder strikes, and more. It could be a big loss for the farmer. Moreover, the maintenance cost is not cheap with updates and further research.

How do I start a Smart Farm?

As mentioned before, you could start by identifying the goals and what aspect you are focusing on. Then prepare the money and choose the suitable technology. If your finances do not support it, you can try to collaborate with researchers. So they can do their research and you can get the best crops. Another way is by finding investors.

After the technology is already set, maintaining smart farming is not an intermittent process. More research regarding the actions to be taken and possible future technology must be carried.

How Many Farmers Use IoT?

Smart farming with IoT is a growing business nowadays. The number of farmers using IoT is increasing and it is projected by the agriculture market in the U.S. that annual growth rate of 19.3%. a survey shows that technology installation in farming also has a similar growth rate that is 20%. This happens globally as many countries come up with modern innovations like Japan, India, Canada, Columbia, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina.

Role of Technology in Agriculture: Revolutionizing the Future of Food Production

• Editor Desk
• June 14, 2023
• Agriculture , Technology in Agriculture

Technology has transformed every aspect of our lives, and agriculture is no exception. From seed to harvest, technology has revolutionized the way we cultivate crops, rear livestock, and manage our farms. With advanced tools and innovative solutions, farmers can enhance efficiency, sustainability, and productivity in the agricultural sector. This article explores the pivotal role of technology in agriculture, highlighting key subheadings and incorporating highly searched keywords.

Precision Agriculture: Optimizing Resource Management

Precision agriculture utilizes cutting-edge technologies such as GPS, remote sensing, and data analytics to optimize resource management in farming operations. By collecting data on soil composition, moisture levels, and crop health, farmers can make informed decisions regarding fertilizer and water usage, leading to improved yields and reduced environmental impact.

Internet of Things (IoT) and Smart Farming: Connectivity for Enhanced Efficiency

The IoT enables the interconnection of various devices and sensors on farms, facilitating data collection, analysis, and automation. Smart farming applications include automated irrigation systems, weather monitoring, livestock tracking, and remote machinery control. By harnessing connectivity, farmers can monitor and manage their operations in real-time, optimizing productivity and reducing costs.

Agricultural Drones: Aerial Insights and Crop Monitoring

Agricultural drones equipped with cameras and sensors provide valuable aerial insights for crop monitoring and management. High-resolution imagery helps identify areas requiring attention, such as pest infestations, nutrient deficiencies, or water stress. Drones enable targeted interventions, allowing farmers to address issues promptly and accurately, leading to improved crop health and higher yields.

Robotics and Automation: Streamlining Farming Processes

Robotic technologies automate various tasks on the farm, including planting, weeding, harvesting, and sorting. With labor shortages becoming a challenge in many regions, robots can fill the gaps, ensuring timely and efficient completion of critical operations. Robotics and automation reduce labor costs, increase productivity, and improve overall farm management.

Data Analytics and Predictive Modeling: Informed Decision Making

By harnessing the power of data analytics and predictive modeling, farmers can make data-driven decisions for optimal farm management. These technologies analyze historical and real-time data to provide insights on crop growth, disease patterns, market trends, and optimal planting schedules. Predictive models help farmers anticipate and mitigate risks, leading to better outcomes and increased profitability.

Key Takeaways:

Technology has become an indispensable tool in modern agriculture, empowering farmers to overcome challenges, maximize efficiency, and ensure sustainable food production . Precision agriculture, IoT, agricultural drones, robotics, and data analytics are just a few examples of the transformative technologies shaping the future of farming. As technology continues to evolve, it holds the potential to address critical issues such as climate change , resource scarcity, and global food security, ultimately paving the way for a more sustainable and resilient agricultural sector.

FAQs About Technology in Agriculture

Q: how does technology benefit agriculture.

A: Technology benefits agriculture by enhancing efficiency, sustainability, and productivity. It enables precise resource management, connectivity through IoT for real-time monitoring, aerial insights through agricultural drones, streamlined processes with robotics and automation, and informed decision-making through data analytics and predictive modeling.

Q: What is precision agriculture?

A: Precision agriculture, also known as precision farming, is an approach that utilizes advanced technologies like GPS, remote sensing, and data analytics to optimize resource management in farming. It involves collecting data on soil composition, moisture levels, and crop health to make informed decisions about fertilizer and water usage, leading to improved yields and reduced environmental impact.

Q: How does IoT contribute to smart farming?

A: The Internet of Things (IoT) plays a crucial role in smart farming by enabling connectivity among various devices and sensors on farms. This connectivity allows for real-time data collection, analysis, and automation. Smart farming applications include automated irrigation systems, weather monitoring, livestock tracking, and remote machinery control, enhancing efficiency and reducing costs.

Q: What are agricultural drones and how do they help farmers?

A: Agricultural drones are unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with cameras and sensors. They provide valuable aerial insights for crop monitoring and management. By capturing high-resolution imagery, farmers can identify areas requiring attention, such as pest infestations, nutrient deficiencies, or water stress. Agricultural drones enable targeted interventions, leading to improved crop health and higher yields.

Q: How do robotics and automation streamline farming processes?

A: Robotics and automation technologies automate various tasks on the farm, such as planting, weeding, harvesting, and sorting. With labor shortages becoming a challenge in many regions, robots can fill the gaps, ensuring timely and efficient completion of critical operations. Robotics and automation reduce labor costs, increase productivity, and improve overall farm management.

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Impact of Technology on Agriculture

Technological innovations have greatly shaped agriculture throughout time. From the creation of the plow to the global positioning system (GPS) driven precision farming equipment, humans have developed new ways to make farming more efficient and grow more food. We are constantly working to find new ways to irrigate crops or breed more disease resistant varieties. These iterations are key to feeding the ever-expanding global population with the decreasing freshwater supply.

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Modern farms and agricultural operations work far differently than those a few decades ago, primarily because of advancements in technology, including sensors, devices, machines, and information technology. Today’s agriculture routinely uses sophisticated technologies such as robots, temperature and moisture sensors, aerial images, and GPS technology . These advanced devices and precision agriculture  and robotic systems  allow businesses to be more profitable, efficient, safer, and more environmentally friendly.

Importance of Agricultural Technology

Farmers no longer have to apply water, fertilizers, and pesticides uniformly across entire fields. Instead, they can use the minimum quantities required and target very specific areas, or even treat individual plants differently. Benefits include:

• Higher crop productivity
• Decreased  use of water, fertilizer, and pesticides, which in turn keeps food prices down
• Reduced impact on natural ecosystems
• Less runoff of chemicals into rivers and groundwater
• Increased worker safety

In addition, robotic technologies enable more reliable monitoring and management of natural resources, such as air and water quality. It also gives producers greater control over plant and animal production, processing, distribution, and storage, which results in:

• Greater efficiencies and lower prices
• Safer growing conditions and safer foods
• Reduced environmental and ecological impact

NIFA’s Impact

NIFA advances agricultural technology and ensures that the nation’s agricultural industries are able to utilize it by supporting:

• Basic research and development in physical sciences, engineering, and computer sciences
• Development of agricultural devices, sensors, and systems
• Applied research that assesses how to employ technologies economically and with minimal disruption to existing practices
• Assistance and instruction to farmers on how to use new technologies

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Ritu Bhandari is a Manager with the Policy & Insights team at Economist Impact. She has over six years of experience working in a wide range of public policy topics including education, technology and sustainability. At Economist Impact, she manages research programs for private-sector, governments and NGO clients in Asia, covering topics like food security, climate & sustainability, and globalisation and trade. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, where she specialised in economic policy analysis.

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Accelerating urban intelligence: People, business and the cities of tomorro...

About the research

Accelerating urban intelligence: People, business and the cities of tomorrow is an Economist Intelligence Unit report, sponsored by Nutanix. It explores expectations of citizens and businesses for smart-city development in some of the world’s major urban centres. The analysis is based on two parallel surveys conducted in 19 cities: one of 6,746 residents and another of 969 business executives. The cities included are Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Dubai, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, New York, Paris, Riyadh, San Francisco, São Paulo, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo and Zurich.

Respondents to the citizen survey were evenly balanced by age (roughly one-third in each of the 18-38, 39-54 and 55 years and older age groups) and gender. A majority (56%) had household incomes above the median level in their city, with 44% below it. Respondents to the business survey were mainly senior executives (65% at C-suite or director level) working in a range of different functions. They work in large, midsize and small firms in over a dozen industries. See the report appendix for full survey results and demographics.

Additional insights were obtained from indepth interviews with city officials, smart-city experts at NGOs and other institutions, and business executives. We would like to thank the following individuals for their time and insights.

The report was written by Denis McCauley and edited by Michael Gold.

Talent for innovation

Talent for innovation: Getting noticed in a global market incorporates case studies of the 34 companies selected as Technology Pioneers in biotechnology/health, energy/environmental technology, and information technology.

Leonardo Da Vinci unquestionably had it in the 15th century; so did Thomas Edison in the 19th century. But today, "talent for innovation" means something rather different. Innovation is no longer the work of one individual toiling in a workshop. In today's globalised, interconnected world, innovation is the work of teams, often based in particular innovation hotspots, and often collaborating with partners, suppliers and customers both nearby and in other countries.

Innovation has become a global activity as it has become easier for ideas and talented people to move from one country to another. This has both quickened the pace of technological development and presented many new opportunities, as creative individuals have become increasingly prized and there has been greater recognition of new sources of talent, beyond the traditional innovation hotspots of the developed world.

The result is a global exchange of ideas, and a global market for innovation talent. Along with growth in international trade and foreign direct investment, the mobility of talent is one of the hallmarks of modern globalisation. Talented innovators are regarded by companies, universities and governments as a vital resource, as precious as oil or water. They are sought after for the simple reason that innovation in products and services is generally agreed to be a large component, if not the largest component, in driving economic growth. It should be noted that "innovation" in this context does not simply mean the development of new, cutting-edge technologies by researchers.

It also includes the creative ways in which other people then refine, repackage and combine those technologies and bring them to market. Indeed, in his recent book, "The Venturesome Economy", Amar Bhidé, professor of business at Columbia University, argues that such "orchestration" of innovation can actually be more important in driving economic activity than pure research. "In a world where breakthrough ideas easily cross national borders, the origin of ideas is inconsequential," he writes. Ideas cross borders not just in the form of research papers, e-mails and web pages, but also inside the heads of talented people. This movement of talent is not simply driven by financial incentives. Individuals may also be motivated by a desire for greater academic freedom, better access to research facilities and funding, or the opportunity to work with key researchers in a particular field.

Countries that can attract talented individuals can benefit from more rapid economic growth, closer collaboration with the countries where those individuals originated, and the likelihood that immigrant entrepreneurs will set up new companies and create jobs. Mobility of talent helps to link companies to sources of foreign innovation and research expertise, to the benefit of both. Workers who emigrate to another country may bring valuable knowledge of their home markets with them, which can subsequently help companies in the destination country to enter those markets more easily. Analysis of scientific journals suggests that international co-authorship is increasing, and there is some evidence thatcollaborative work has a greater impact than work carried out in one country. Skilled individuals also act as repositories of knowledge, training the next generation and passing on their accumulated wisdom.

But the picture is complicated by a number of concerns. In developed countries which have historically depended to a large extent on foreign talent (such as the United States), there is anxiety that it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract talent as new opportunities arise elsewhere. Compared with the situation a decade ago, Indian software engineers, for example, may be more inclined to set up a company in India, rather than moving to America to work for a software company there. In developed countries that have not historically relied on foreign talent (such as Germany), meanwhile, the ageing of the population as the birth rate falls and life expectancy increases means there is a need to widen the supply of talent, as skilled workers leave the workforce and young people show less interest than they used to in technical subjects. And in developing countries, where there is a huge supply of new talent (hundreds of thousands of engineers graduate from Indian and Chinese universities every year), the worry is that these graduates have a broad technical grounding but may lack the specialised skills demanded by particular industries.

Other shifts are also under way. The increasing sophistication of emerging economies (notably India and China) is overturning the old model of "create in the West, customise for the East". Indian and Chinese companies are now globally competitive in many industries. And although the mobility of talent is increasing, workers who move to another country are less likely to stay for the long-term, and are more likely to return to their country of origin. The number of Chinese students studying abroad increased from 125,000 in 2002 to 134,000 in 2006, for example, but the proportion who stayed in the country where they studied after graduating fell from 85% to 69% over the same period, according to figures from the OECD (see page 10).

What is clear is that the emergence of a global market for talent means gifted innovators are more likely to be able to succeed, and new and unexpected opportunities are being exploited, as this year's Technology Pioneers demonstrate. They highlight three important aspects of the global market for talent: the benefits of mobility, the significant role of diasporas, and the importance of network effects in catalysing innovation.

Brain drain, or gain?

Perhaps the most familiar aspect of the debate about flows of talent is the widely expressed concern about the "brain drain" from countries that supply talented workers. If a country educates workers at the taxpayers' expense, does it not have a claim on their talent? There are also worries that the loss of skilled workers can hamper institutional development and drive up the cost of technical services. But such concerns must be weighed against the benefits of greater mobility.

There are not always opportunities for skilled individuals in their country of birth. The prospect of emigration can encourage the development of skills by individuals who may not in fact decide to emigrate. Workers who emigrate may send remittances back to their families at home, which can be a significant source of income and can help to alleviate poverty. And skilled workers may return to their home countries after a period working abroad, further stimulating knowledge transfer and improving the prospects for domestic growth, since they will maintain contacts with researchers overseas. As a result, argues a recent report from the OECD, it makes more sense to talk of a complex process of "brain circulation" rather than a one-way "brain drain". The movement of talent is not simply a zero-sum gain in which sending countries lose, and receiving countries benefit. Greater availability and mobility of talent opens up new possibilities and can benefit everyone.

Consider, for example, BioMedica Diagnostics of Windsor, Nova Scotia. The company makes medical diagnostic systems, some of them battery-operated, that can be used to provide health care in remote regions to people who would otherwise lack access to it. It was founded by Abdullah Kirumira, a Ugandan biochemist who moved to Canada in 1990 and became a professor at Acadia University. There he developed a rapid test for HIV in conjunction with one of his students, Hermes Chan (a native of Hong Kong who had moved to Canada to study). According to the United States Centers for Disease Control, around one-third of people tested for HIV do not return to get the result when it takes days or weeks to determine. Dr Kirumira and Dr Chan developed a new test that provides the result in three minutes, so that a diagnosis can be made on the spot. Dr Kirumira is a prolific inventor who went on to found several companies, and has been described as "the pioneer of Nova Scotia's biotechnology sector".

Today BioMedica makes a range of diagnostic products that are portable, affordable and robust, making them ideally suited for use in developing countries. They allow people to be rapidly screened for a range of conditions, including HIV, hepatitis, malaria, rubella, typhoid and cholera. The firm's customers include the World Health Organisation. Providing such tests to patients in the developing world is a personal mission of Dr Kirumira's, but it also makes sound business sense: the market for invitro diagnostics in the developing world is growing by over 25% a year, the company notes, compared with growth of only 5% a year in developed nations.

Moving to Canada gave Dr Kirumira research opportunities and access to venture funding that were not available in Uganda. His innovations now provide an affordable way for hospitals in his native continent of Africa to perform vital tests. A similar example is provided by mPedigree, a start-up that has developed a mobile-phone-based system that allows people to verify the authenticity of medicines. Counterfeit drugs are widespread in the developing world: they are estimated to account for 10-25% of all drugs sold, and over 80% in some countries. The World Health Organisation estimates that a fake vaccine for meningitis, distributed in Niger in 1995, killed over 2,500 people. mPedigree was established by Bright Simons, a Ghanaian social entrepreneur, in conjunction with Ashifi Gogo, a fellow Ghanaian. The two were more than just acquaintances having met at Secondary School. There are many high-tech authentication systems available in the developed world for drug packaging, involving radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips, DNA tags, and so forth.

The mPedigree system developed my Mr Gogo, an engineering student, is much cheaper and simpler and only requires the use of a mobile phone — an item that is now spreading more quickly in Africa than in any other region of the world. Once the drugs have been purchased, a panel on the label is scratched off to reveal a special code. The patient then sends this code, by text message, to a particular number. The code is looked up in a database and a message is sent back specifying whether the drugs are genuine. The system is free to use because the drug companies cover the cost of the text messages. It was launched in Ghana in 2007, and mPedigree's founders hope to extend it to all 48 sub-Saharan African countries within a decade, and to other parts of in the developing world.

The effort is being supported by Ghana's Food and Drug Board, and by local telecoms operators and drug manufacturers. Mr Gogo has now been admitted into a special progamme at Dartmouth College in the United States that develops entrepreneurial skills, in addition to technical skills, in engineers. Like Dr Kirumira, he is benefiting from opportunities that did not exist in his home country, and his country is benefiting too. This case of mPedigree shows that it is wrong to assume that the movement of talent is one-way (from poor to rich countries) and permanent. As it has become easier to travel and communications technology has improved, skilled workers have become more likely to spend brief spells in other countries that provide opportunities, rather than emigrating permanently.

And many entrepreneurs and innovators shuttle between two or more places — between Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley, for example, or Silicon Valley and Hsinchu in Taiwan — in a pattern of "circular" migration, in which it is no longer meaningful to distinguish between "sending" and "receiving" countries.

The benefits of a diaspora

Migration (whether temporary, permanent or circular) to a foreign country can be facilitated by the existence of a diaspora, since it can be easier to adjust to a new culture when you are surrounded by compatriots who have already done so. Some observers worry that diasporas make migration too easy, in the sense that they may encourage a larger number of talented individuals to leave their home country than would otherwise be the case, to the detriment of that country.

But as with the broader debate about migration, this turns out to be only part of the story. Diasporas can have a powerful positive effect in promoting innovation and benefiting the home country. Large American technology firms, for example, have set up research centres in India in part because they have been impressed by the calibre of the migrant Indian engineers they have employed in America. Diasporas also provide a channel for knowledge and skills to pass back to the home country.

James Nakagawa, a Canadian of Japanese origin and the founder of Mobile Healthcare, is a case in point. A third-generation immigrant, he grew up in Canada but decided in 1994 to move to Japan, where he worked for a number of technology firms and set up his own financial-services consultancy. In 2000 he had the idea that led him to found Mobile Healthcare, when a friend was diagnosed with diabetes and lamented that he found it difficult to determine which foods to eat, and which to avoid.

The rapid spread of advanced mobile phones in Japan, a world leader in mobile telecoms, prompted Mr Nakagawa to devise Lifewatcher, Mobile Healthcare's main product. It is a "disease selfmanagement system" used in conjunction with a doctor, based around a secure online database that can be accessed via a mobile phone. Patients record what medicines they are taking and what food they are eating, taking a picture of each meal. A database of common foodstuffs, including menu items from restaurants and fast-food chains, helps users work out what they can safely eat. Patients can also call up their medical records to follow the progress of key health indicators, such as blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and calorie intake.

All of this information can also be accessed online by the patient's doctor or nutritionist. The system allows people with diabetes or obesity (both of which are rapidly becoming more prevalent in Japan and elsewhere) to take an active role in managing their conditions. Mr Nakagawa did three months of research in the United States and Canada while developing Lifewatcher, which was created with support from Apple (which helped with hardware and software), the Japanese Red Cross and Japan's Ministry of Health and Welfare (which provided full access to its nutritional database).

Japanese patients who are enrolled in the system have 70% of the cost covered by their health insurance. Mr Nakagawa is now working to introduce Lifewatcher in the United States and Canada, where obesity and diabetes are also becoming more widespread — along advanced mobile phones of the kind once only found in Japan. Mr Nakagawa's ability to move freely between Japanese and North American cultures, combining the telecoms expertise of the former with the entrepreneurial approach of the latter, has resulted in a system that can benefit both.

The story of Calvin Chin, the Chinese-American founder of Qifang, is similar. Mr Chin was born and educated in America, and worked in the financial services and technology industries for several years before moving to China. Expatriate Chinese who return to the country, enticed by opportunities in its fast-growing economy, are known as "returning turtles". Qifang is a "peer to peer" (P2P) lending site that enables students to borrow money to finance their education from other users of the site. P2P lending has been pioneered in other countries by sites such as Zopa and Prosper in other countries.

Such sites require would-be borrowers to provide a range of personal details about themselves to reassure lenders, and perform credit checks on them. Borrowers pay above-market rates, which is what attracts lenders. Qifang adds several twists to this formula. It is concentrating solely on student loans, which means that regulators are more likely to look favourably on the company's unusual business model. It allows payments to be made directly to educational institutions, to make sure the money goes to the right place. Qifang also requires borrowers to give their parents' names when taking out a loan, which increases the social pressure on them not to default, since that would cause the family to lose face.

Mr Chin has thus tuned an existing business model to take account of the cultural and regulatory environment in China, where P2P lending could be particularly attractive, given the relatively undeveloped state of China's financial-services market. In a sense, Qifang is just an updated, online version of the community group-lending schemes that are commonly used to finance education in China. The company's motto is that "everyone should be able to get an education, no matter their financial means".

Just as Mr Chin is trying to use knowledge acquired in the developed world to help people in his mother country of China, Sachin Duggal hopes his company, Nivio, will do something similar for people in India. Mr Duggal was born in Britain and is of Indian extraction. He worked in financial services, including a stint as a technologist at Deutsche Bank, before setting up Nivio, which essentially provides a PC desktop, personalised with a user's software and documents, that can be accessed from any web browser.

This approach makes it possible to centralise the management of PCs in a large company, and is already popular in the business world. But Mr Duggal hopes that it will also make computing more accessible to people who find the prospect of owning and managing their own PCs (and dealing with spam and viruses) too daunting, or simply cannot afford a PC at all. Nivio's software was developed in India, where Mr Duggal teamed up with Iqbal Gandham, the founder of Net4India, one of India's first internet service providers. Mr Duggal believes that the "virtual webtop" model could have great potential in extending access to computers to rural parts of India, and thus spreading the opportunities associated with the country's high-tech boom. A survey of the bosses of Indian software firms clearly shows how diasporas can promote innovation.

It found that those bosses who had lived abroad and returned to India made far more use of diaspora links upon their return than entrepreneurs who had never lived abroad, which gave them access to capital and skills in other countries. Diasporas can, in other words, help to ensure that "brain drain" does indeed turn into "brain gain", provided the government of the country in question puts appropriate policies in place to facilitate the movement of people, technology and capital.

Making the connection

Multinational companies can also play an important role in providing new opportunities for talented individuals, and facilitating the transfer of skills. In recent years many technology companies have set up large operations in India, for example, in order to benefit from the availability of talented engineers and the services provided by local companies. Is this simply exploitation of low-paid workers by Western companies?

The example of JiGrahak Mobility Solutions, a start-up based in Bangalore, illustrates why it is not. The company was founded by Sourabh Jain, an engineering graduate from the Delhi Institute of Technology. After completing his studies he went to work for the Indian research arm of Lucent Technologies, an American telecoms-equipment firm. This gave him a solid grounding in mobile-phone technology, which subsequently enabled him to set up JiGrahak, a company that provides a mobile-commerce service called Ngpay.

In India, where many people first experience the internet on a mobile phone, rather than a PC, and where mobile phones are far more widespread than PCs, there is much potential for phone-based shopping and payment services. Ngpay lets users buy tickets, pay bills and transfer money using their handsets. Such is its popularity that with months of its launch in 2008, Ngpay accounted for 4% of ticket sales at Fame, an Indian cinema chain.

The role of large companies in nurturing talented individuals, who then leave to set up their own companies, is widely understood in Silicon Valley. Start-ups are often founded by alumni from Sun, HP, Oracle and other big names. Rather than worrying that they could be raising their own future competitors, large companies understand that the resulting dynamic, innovative environment benefits everyone, as large firms spawn, compete with and acquire smaller ones.

As large firms establish outposts in developing countries, such catalysis of innovation is becoming more widespread. Companies with large numbers of employees and former employees spread around the world can function rather like a corporate diaspora, in short, providing another form of network along which skills and technology can diffuse. The network that has had the greatest impact on spreading ideas, promoting innovation and allowing potential partners to find out about each other's research is, of course, the internet. As access to the internet becomes more widespread, it can allow developing countries to link up more closely with developed countries, as the rise of India's software industry illustrates. But it can also promote links between developing countries.

The Cows to Kilowatts Partnership, based in Nigeria, provides an unusual example. It was founded by Joseph Adelagan, a Nigerian engineer, who was concerned about the impact on local rivers of effluent from the Bodija Market abattoir in Ibadan. As well as the polluting the water supply of several nearby villages, the effluent carried animal diseases that could be passed to humans. Dr Adelagan proposed setting up an effluent-treatment plant.

He discovered, however, that although treating the effluent would reduce water pollution, the process would produce carbon-dioxide and methane emissions that contribute to climate change. So he began to look for ways to capture these gases and make use of them. Researching the subject online, he found that a research institution in Thailand, the Centre for Waste Utilisation and Management at King Mongkut University of Technology Thonburi, had developed anaerobic reactors that could transform agro-industrial waste into biogas. He made contact with the Thai researchers, and together they developed a version of the technology

suitable for use in Nigeria that turns the abattoir waste into clean household cooking gas and organic fertiliser, thus reducing the need for expensive chemical fertiliser. The same approach could be applied across Africa, Dr Adelagan believes. The Cows to Kilowatts project illustrates the global nature of modern innovation, facilitated by the free movement of both ideas and people. Thanks to the internet, people in one part of the world can easily make contact with people trying to solve similar problems elsewhere.

Lessons learned

What policies should governments adopt in order to develop and attract innovation talent, encourage its movement and benefit from its circulation? At the most basic level, investment in education is vital. Perhaps surprisingly, however, Amar Bhidé of Columbia University suggests that promoting innovation does not mean pushing as many students as possible into technical subjects.

Although researchers and technologists provide the raw material for innovation, he points out, a crucial role in orchestrating innovation is also played by entrepreneurs who may not have a technical background. So it is important to promote a mixture of skills. A strong education system also has the potential to attract skilled foreign students, academics and researchers, and gives foreign companies an incentive to establish nearby research and development operations.

Many countries already offer research grants, scholarships and tax benefits to attract talented immigrants. In many cases immigration procedures are "fast tracked" for individuals working in science and technology. But there is still scope to remove barriers to the mobility of talent. Mobility of skilled workers increasingly involves short stays, rather than permanent moves, but this is not yet widely reflected in immigration policy. Removing barriers to short-term stays can increase "brain circulation" and promote diaspora links.

Another problem for many skilled workers is that their qualifications are not always recognised in other countries. Greater harmonisation of standards for qualifications is one way to tackle this problem; some countries also have formal systems to evaluate foreign qualifications and determine their local equivalents. Countries must also provide an open and flexible business environment to ensure that promising innovations can be brought to market. If market access or financial backing are not available, after all, today's global-trotting innovators increasingly have the option of going elsewhere.

The most important point is that the global competition for talent is not a zero-sum game in which some countries win, and others lose. As the Technology Pioneers described here demonstrate, the nature of innovation, and the global movement of talent and ideas, is far more complicated that the simplistic notion of a "talent war" between developed and developing nations would suggest. Innovation is a global activity, and granting the greatest possible freedom to innovators can help to ensure that the ideas they generate will benefit the greatest possible number of people.

Integrated Transformation: How rising customer expectations are turning com...

Modern customers have it good. Spoilt for choice and convenience, today’s empowered consumers have come to expect more from the businesses they interact with. This doesn’t just apply to their wanting a quality product at a fair price, but also tailored goods, swift and effective customer service across different channels, and a connected experience across their online shopping and in-store experience, with easy access to information they need when they want it. 

Meeting these expectations is a significant challenge for organisations. For many, it requires restructuring long-standing operating models, re-engineering business processes and adopting a fundamental shift in mindset to put customer experience at the heart of business decision- making. Download our report to learn more. 

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Tiny nanotechnologies are poised to have a huge impact on agriculture

Nanotechnologies can help reduce water for the agricultural industry. Image:  Unsplash/no one cares

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• The agricultural industry relies heavily on water, fertilizers and pesticides to improve their yields.
• Nanotechnology uses precision chemistry to achieve high-efficiency delivery of fertilizers or pesticides to a designated area.
• This maximizes the effect of these ingredients without creating waste.

Science is about big ideas that change the world. But sometimes, big impacts come from the tiniest of objects.

Nanotechnology might sound like science fiction, but it represents technologies that have been developed for decades. Nanotechnological approaches have found real-world applications in a wide range of areas, from composite materials in textiles to agriculture .

Agriculture is one of the oldest human inventions, but nanotech provides modern innovations that could dramatically improve the efficiency of our food supply and reduce the environmental impact of its production.

Agriculture comes with costs that farmers are only too familiar with: Crops require substantial amounts of water, land and fuel to produce. Fertilizers and pesticides are needed to achieve the necessary high crop yields, but their use comes with environmental side effects, even as many farmers explore how new technologies can reduce their impact.

The tiniest of objects

Nanotechnology is the science of objects that are a few nanometres — billionths of a metre — across. At this size, objects acquire unique properties. For example, the surface area of a swarm of nanoscale particles is enormous compared to the same mass collected into single large-scale clump.

Varying the size and other properties of nanoscale objects gives us an unprecedented ability to create precision surfaces with highly customized properties.

Employing particles

Traditionally, applying chemicals involves first mixing the active ingredients in water and then spraying the mixture on crops. But the ingredients do not mix easily , making this an inefficient process that requires large quantities of water.

To improve efficiency and reduce environmental impact, farmers need their fertilizers and pesticides to reach their crops and be absorbed into the plant exactly where they’re needed — into the roots or the leaves, for example. Ideally, they could use just enough of the chemical to enhance the crop’s yield or protect it from attack or infection, which would prevent excess from being wasted.

Custom-made nanoscale systems can use precision chemistry to achieve high-efficiency delivery of fertilizers or pesticides. These active ingredients can be encapsulated in a fashion similar to what happens in targeted drug delivery . The encapsulation technique can also be used to increase the amount dissolved in water, reducing the need for large amounts.

Current applications

Starpharma, a pharmaceutical company, got into this game a few years ago, when it set up a division to apply its nanotechnological innovations to the agriculture sector. The company has since sold its agrochemical business .

Psigryph is another innovative nanotech company in agriculture . Its technology uses biodegradable nanostructures derived from Montmonercy sour cherries extract to deliver bioactive molecules across cell membranes in plants, animals and humans.

My lab has spent years working in nanoscience, and I am proud to see our fundamental understanding of manipulating polymer encapsulation at the nanoscale make its way to applications in agriculture. A former student, Darren Anderson, is the CEO of Vive Crop Protection, named one of Canada’s top growing firms : they take chemical and biological pesticides and suspend them in “nanopackets” — which act as incredibly small polymer shuttles — to make them easily reach their target. The ingredients can be controlled and precisely directed when applied on crops.

Existing infrastructure

One bonus of these nanotech developments is that they don’t actually require any new equipment whatsoever, which is a tremendous advantage in the financially challenging agricultural industry. Farmers simply mix these products using less water and fuel to make efficiency gains.

Other agricultural uses for nanotech include animal health products , food packaging materials and nanobiosensors for detecting pathogens, toxins and heavy metals in soil . It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the widespread use of these new applications in the near future.

As nanotechnologies take flight, this kind of productivity gain will be critical for farmers and a big deal for the rest of us, as the Earth’s population continues to grow and the effects of climate change become increasingly obvious. Farmers will need to do more with less.

Fortunately, a few billionths of a metre is the very definition of less. With the help of tiny nanotech, global agriculture is on the verge of some very big things.

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Technology and transition in agriculture

April 4, 2024 Crops , Ohio Field Leader , Top Headlines Leave a comment

In 1828 Nicholas Heil came to America with the desire to farm. To fulfil his dream, he had to spend 7 years after arriving, working as an indentured servant to pay for his trip and get a start. In1839 Nicholas finally achieved his goal of being able to farm in America.  Nicholas’s experience and example has inspired subsequent generations of the Heil family.

Six generations later, Austin Heil and his father Ashley now farm the same ground in Hardin County that Nicholas first farmed in 1839.  The Heil’s farm just over 400 acres of soybeans, corn, and hay as well as doing some custom planting and harvest. “Our soil types are very variable. We have fields that go from heavy clay to loam to sand all in the same field from one end to the other. When it comes to watersheds, some of our farms flow south, eventually to the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Our other farms flow north to the Blanchard River and eventually Lake Erie,” said Heil. “As the H2Ohio program expanded, we were able to enroll our acres in those programs, and that has allowed us to try some new things.”

Technology in agriculture has evolved dramatically since the mid-1800’s when Nicholas first tilled the soil in Hardin County. In just the last decade the changes have been drastic. “Dad started with a Sensor-1 in the planter to monitor seed drop. About 10 years ago we started to transition, implementing newer technology, and that has got us where we are today,” said Heil. The Heil’s now use an autosteer system for guidance, and the Precision Planting 20/20 SeedSense technology that helps to adjust the down pressure and seed depth without causing unnecessary compaction. Along with the farm, Ausin works for Case New Holland (CNH) providing precision ag support to their dealer network in North America.

Deciding where to start in the ag technology space can be overwhelming given the speed of change that is occurring in the industry. “I feel blessed that I can use our farm as an example. I can wear both a farmer hat and a CNH hat to try things out. I started by asking Dad why we do things the way do them,” said Heil. “Our two most expensive inputs (seed and fertilizer) can be better monitored using technology. It starts with getting the right fertility levels in the field and managing that. If the soil fertility is not right, then the seed is not going to perform as well. Once the fertility is in check, then we turn to the seed. If the seed is not placed evenly and consistently, or if the seeding rate is too high or too low, then we are not setting the bar high for success.”

“To measure our operations and look for where to improve, we started with a 20/20 monitor on the old 5100 White 6 row planter. That showed us what was really going on behind the planter and helped us measure what we were doing to gain insights as to where we needed to change,” said Heil.

“When it comes to using precision ag technology, it doesn’t matter the color of globe on top of the tractor or the color of the paint on the machine, an important thing with technology is to find a trusted advisor. A conversation with a good, trusted advisor is worth more than its weight in gold,” said Heil. “A good advisor will help you put pencil to paper and decide what makes sense. Even on a small farm the right technology can make pay for itself.”

Combining technology with machinery to solve challenges is something farmers have been doing for years. Many a solution to a problem on the farm were figured out in the shop with a piece of used equipment, a cutting torch, a welder, and parts from other machines. The same goes for the Heil farm. Austin wanted to be able to band nutrients in their fields, and with the help of H2Ohio funds he built a 8 row bander. They took an old John Deere 7000 planter frame, added some dry boxes and took parts from some other machines, along with technology from old planters that have been converted to electric drives. “We have a hydraulic drive off an old John Deere planter and a rate controller,” said Heil. “With this and our prescription maps from our ag retailer, we are able to participate in the H2Ohio program and band our fertilizer 4 inches under the surface and three inches away from where the seed will be planted.”

The Heil’s also built their own soybean planter. They took an old 6 row White 5100 planter that sat in the back corner of the barn and combined it with another white 6 row White 5100 planter from a friend and converted it to a narrow row soybean planter. “This planter has saved us almost half a pallet of soybean seeds each year compared to using a drill,” said Heil. “We now have a bean planter that can singulate the seeds which allows us to both save seed and get a better stand and better crop.”

Looking ahead, Heil is excited to be able to pull together more data. “We have Smart Firmers on our planter, so by taking the planting data with CEC and organic matter and soil sample data we have collected, combined with our Farm TRX yield monitor data from the combine, we can now make more informed decisions about how we manage things moving forward.”

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• Q&A: Tips for viewing the 2024 solar eclipse

Q&A: Tips for viewing the 2024 solar eclipse

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On Monday, April 8, the United States will experience a total solar eclipse — a rare astronomical event where the moon passes directly between the sun and the Earth, blocking out the sun’s light almost completely. The last total solar eclipse in the contiguous U.S. was in 2017, and the next one won’t be until 2044.

If the weather cooperates, people across the United States — from northeastern Maine to southwestern Texas — will be able to observe the eclipse using protective eyewear. Those in the path of totality , where the moon entirely covers the sun, will have the best view, but 99% of people in the continental U.S. will be able to see a partial eclipse. Weather permitting, those on the MIT campus and the surrounding area will see 93 percent of the sun covered, with the partial eclipse starting at 2:15 p.m. and reaching its peak around 3:29 p.m. Gatherings are planned at the Kresge Oval and the MIT Museum , and a live NASA stream will be shown in the Building 55 atrium .

Brian Mernoff , manager of the CommLab in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, is an accomplished astrophotographer and science educator. Mernoff is headed to Vermont with his family to experience the totality from the best possible angle — but has offered a few thoughts on how to enjoy the eclipse safely, wherever you are.

Q: What should viewers expect to see and experience with this solar eclipse?

A: When you’re watching TV (the sun) and your toddler, dog, or other large mammal (the moon) blocks your view, you no doubt move over a bit to try to get a partial or full view of the TV. This is exactly how the path of totality works for an eclipse. If you are exactly in line with the moon and sun, it will be completely blocked, but if you start moving away from this path, your view of the sun will start to increase until the moon is not in the way at all.

The closer you are to the path of totality, the more of the sun will be blocked. At MIT, about 93 percent of the sun will be blocked. Those in the area will notice that things around you will get slightly darker, just like when it starts to become overcast. Even so, the sun will remain very bright in the sky and solar glasses will be required to view the entirety of the eclipse. It really goes to show how incredibly bright the sun is!

Within the narrow path of totality, the moon will continue to move across the sun, reaching 100 percent coverage. For this short period of time, you can remove your glasses and see a black disk where the sun should be. Around the disk will be wispy white lines. This is the corona, the outermost part of the sun, which is normally outshone by the sun’s photosphere (surface). Around the edges of the black disk of the moon, right as totality begins and ends, you can also see bright spots around the edges, known as Bailey’s Beads, caused by sunlight shining between mountains and craters on the moon.

But that’s not all! Although you will be tempted to stare up at the sun throughout totality, do not forget to observe the world around you. During totality, it feels like twilight. There is a 360-degree sunset, the temperature changes rapidly, winds change, animals start making different sounds, and shadows start getting weird (look into “shadow bands” if you have a chance).

As soon as totality ends, and you start to see Baily’s Beads again, put your solar glasses back on as it will get very bright again very fast as the moon moves out of the way.

Q: What are the best options for viewing the eclipse safely and to greatest effect?

A: No matter where you are during the eclipse, make sure you have solar glasses. These glasses should be ISO-approved for solar viewing. Do not use glasses with scratches, holes, or other damage.

If you are unable to obtain solar glasses in time, you can safely view the eclipse using a home-made projection method , such as a pinhole camera or even projecting the image of the sun through a colander.

The best view of the eclipse will be from within the path of totality, but even if you are not within it, you should still go outside to experience the partial eclipse. Use the NASA Eclipse Explorer to find the start, maximum, and end times, and then find a nice spot outside — preferably with some shade — put on your glasses, and enjoy the show.

For a closer view of the sun, find a friend that has a telescope with the correct ISO-certified solar filter. This will let you see the photosphere (or chromosphere if it is an H-alpha scope) in a lot more detail. If you do not have access to a telescope, NASA plans to livestream a telescope view throughout the eclipse. [The livestream will be displayed publicly on a large screen in Building 55 at MIT, rain or shine.]

The only time you can look at or image the sun without a filter is during 100 percent totality. As soon as this period is done, glasses and filters must be put back on.

After the eclipse, keep your glasses and filters. You can use them to look at the sun on any day (it took me an embarrassing amount of time to realize that I could use the glasses at any time instead of lugging out a telescope). On a really clear day, you can sometimes see sunspots!

Q: How does eclipse photography work?

A: This year I plan to photograph the eclipse in two ways. The first is using a hydrogen-alpha telescope. This telescope filters out all light except for one wavelength that is given off by hydrogen. Because it blocks out most of the light from the sun’s surface, it allows you to see the turbulent upper atmosphere of the sun, including solar prominences that follow magnetic field lines.

Because this telescope does not allow for imaging during totality as too much light is blocked, I also plan to set up a regular camera with a wide-angle lens to capture the total eclipse with the surrounding environment as context. During the 2017 eclipse, I only captured close-ups of the sun using a regular solar filter and missed the opportunity to capture what was going on around me.

Will it work? That depends on if we get clear skies, and how many pictures of my 1.5-year-old need to be taken (as well as how much chasing needs to be done).

If you would like to take pictures of the eclipse, make sure you protect your camera sensor. The sun can easily damage lenses, sensors, and other components. Here are some examples of solar damaged cameras . The solution is simple, though. If using a camera phone, you can take pictures through an extra pair of solar glasses, or even tape them to the phone. For cameras with larger lenses, you can buy cardboard filters that slide over the front of your camera or even buy ISO-approved solar film and make your own.

Q: Any fun, unique, cool, or interesting science facts about this eclipse to share?

A: If you want to get even more involved with the eclipse, there are many citizen science projects that plan to collect as much data as possible throughout the eclipse.

NASA is planning to run several experiments during the eclipse , and researchers with MIT Haystack Observatory will also be using four different technologies to monitor changes in the upper atmosphere , both locally and across the continent.

If you are interested in learning more about the eclipse, here are two of my favorite videos, one on “ unexpected science from a 0.000001 megapixel home-made telescope ” and one on solar eclipse preparation .

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