In the late 1950s and 60’, some of the world’s leading authors and scientists predicted that hundreds of millions of people would die in famines due to rising populations and the inability to feed them. Before these predictions could become a nightmare for humanity, the green revolution saved the day. We increased the production of several crops, especially rice and wheat and increasing the productivity of existing production.

Today in 2022, we are faced with the same problem of a growing population. But this time they are accompanied by the effects of global warming and climate change. With drastic changes in temperatures across the globe, the global food supply chain could be disrupted, starving millions of people to death.

So, the question is, Is the saviour this time in the form of smart farming? Let’s start the proceedings with what is smart farming and why it is considered to be the future of agriculture.

Smart farming is a way of practising agricultural lands and farms using technologies like IoT, robotics, drones, and AI to increase the quantity and quality of products while optimizing the human labour required by production. Currently, the available technologies for farmers range from diverse sensors (soil, temperature, humidity and water management) to robotics. Specialised software solutions also help farms in managing the crops with the data received from the sensors installed. In my previous article on Agri-Tech Careers, I have elaborated on several new job roles in this sector and in this article, we have to understand the prospects of this sector to truly make it appealing for the common man to show interest. The market size is currently valued at USD 14.44 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.8% from 2022 to 2030.

Farmers in order to achieve higher yields and maintain the optimum growing conditions are realising the potential of growing crops in controlled environment greenhouses/Agriculture (CEA). They have shifted from the conventional lighting systems to LED grow lights as the latter can easily be integrated into a CEA setup. Although LED grows lights are high in cost, they are an ideal option for indoor farming, owing to their long-term benefits in terms of energy efficiency. Steps like these are tackling the problems of global warming, and climate change and at the same time feeding the growing population all at once.

The key technologies involved and that are factored in for this growth rate include livestock biometrics, and GPS to help cultivators automatically obtain information regarding livestock in real-time. Furthermore, infrastructural health sensors are used for monitoring material conditions and vibrations in buildings, factories, bridges, farms, and other infrastructure. Coupled with an intelligent network, infrastructural health sensors help provide information to the maintenance team in real-time. In addition, agricultural robots are being used to automate farming processes, such as soil maintenance, weeding, fruit picking, harvesting, planting, ploughing, and irrigation, among others. New age drones capture large fields in a short time frame with a high level of accuracy and support farmers by capturing every inch of the field. It helps farmers gain perspective on exact area to apply fertilisers, germination rate, weed infestation, mapping of plants /crops, this in turn increases efficiency and thereby productivity.

So, what does all this mean to the common man and the future of our planet?

We can see the next green revolution unfold in the coming years and it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the process has already started in a way. This opens numerous opportunities as a consumer- with a safe and reliant food source and as a producer, you are ensured with a steady income and produce in a sustainable manner. Education and skilling of farmers and next-gen farmers with latest technological developments in farming, agri-business and market intelligence will unlock several solutions to the problems faced by mankind and be the way forward.