In the face of intensifying climate change and environmental degradation, protecting natural resources has become the focus of attention of global leaders and critical stakeholders. In this search for solutions, there's a growing consensus for sustainable agriculture.
In the face of intensifying climate change and environmental degradation, protecting natural resources has become the focus of attention of global leaders and critical stakeholders. In this search for solutions, there's a growing consensus for sustainable agriculture because it provides principles, practices, and tools that aim to strike a balance between meeting current food needs and preserving the environment for future generations.
But beyond environmental preservation, important stakeholders like the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform have expanded the concept of sustainable agriculture to include promoting the economic and social well-being of farmers and rural communities. The success stories of several initiatives that support this holistic approach demonstrate that we should embrace sustainable agriculture as a viable solution to the interconnected challenges of food production, environmental sustainability, and equitable livelihoods.
Farmers practising sustainable farming almost treat the soil like an egg because they recognise and accept the fact that soil is a finite (if not fragile) and non-renewable resource. Depleting its nutrient content or compromising its structure could jeopardise current and future crop yields. For these farmers, practices like composting, cover cropping, and reduced tillage are prioritised to nourish the soil and restore its nutrients.
Food production requires energy. In fact, a quarter of the world's energy is consumed by agriculture-related products. But farmers and other stakeholders in the agricultural value chain could save more energy– and the world would have been safer– if most of this energy were not generated using fossil fuels. With sustainable agriculture relying on renewable energy sources, energy consumption can be significantly reduced while mitigating the environmental impact of food production.
Sustainable farming is still the best way for farmers to conserve and protect water. By adopting drip irrigation, soil moisture monitoring, and other sustainable agricultural practices, farmers can significantly reduce water usage while maintaining or even improving crop yields. In arid regions, where water scarcity is a big challenge, embracing sustainable farming practices becomes even more beneficial as it ensures agriculture's long-term viability and safeguards water ecosystems.
It's become a maxim that there are no good crops without good seeds. Sustainable agriculture has allowed many farming communities worldwide to understand how to produce high yields under adverse conditions. For instance, it supports polyculture, the practice of growing multiple crops together. This practice reduces the need for chemical inputs. Also, by integrating trees into farms, adopting water conservation techniques, and implementing variable-rate fertiliser applications, farmers can promote crop resilience.
Sustainable agriculture is often described as "nature sustainability" or "natural farming" because all its underlying principles and practices aim to protect the earth's resources. Take biological seed treatment, for instance. Unlike chemical treatment, which degrades the environment, this method uses natural substances derived from plants, microorganisms, or other organic sources. According to a study, this method significantly improves seed germination, seedling emergence, plant biomass, disease control, and crop yield.
Thankfully, sustainable agriculture initiatives are working to localise access to the technology, knowledge, and finance required for sustainable food production. These interventions, supported by global players, ensure that sustainable agriculture's benefits are shared equitably and that local knowledge and expertise are valued and integrated into sustainable food systems.
Adopting sustainability standards in farming improves the stability of food production, and that, in turn, positively affects supply. But that is not where it ends. All stakeholders in the supply chain ensure that food is sustainably managed to preserve its shelf life and avoid waste.
Sustainable agriculture emphasises promoting fair and equitable economic opportunities for farmers, ensuring they receive a fair share of the value they create. JIVA prioritises this part of agricultural sustainability. While smallholder farmers are the backbone of the global food system, they struggle with poverty. The startup is tackling this challenge by providing farmers access to valuable market opportunities.
Despite the overlap in what constitutes sustainable agriculture, experts agree that resource efficiency is vital to sustaining the economic viability of farm operations. This means using resources such as land, water, energy, and labour to maximise output while minimising inputs. By adopting resource-efficient practices, farms can reduce costs, increase profitability, and protect the environment.
Scientists are actively exploring AI's potential to support agriculture sustainability. A particular research shows that AI can be beneficial in the following ways:
Prediction: AI models can analyse historical weather data, soil conditions, and other factors to predict crop yields with greater accuracy.
Resources management: AI-powered irrigation systems leverage hardware like sensors and present data analytics to optimise water usage based on real-time soil moisture and plant needs. This reduces water consumption and improves water use efficiency.
Harvesting: AI-driven vision systems can identify ripe fruits, vegetables, or grains, allowing robots to harvest only mature produce selectively, reducing losses and preserving the quality of the remaining crops.
Advanced care of crop: Labor-intensive crop care with excessive chemical inputs leads to high costs and pollution. However, robotic disease detection allows farmers to fertilise based on infection results.
Weed Control: AI-powered robots are being developed to detect and remove weeds mechanically, reducing the reliance on herbicides and labour for weed control.
Supply chain management: To ensure that food products are transported efficiently and reach consumers promptly, AI is used to track shipments, optimise routes, and predict demand patterns.
With a market value exceeding $4 billion, drones are increasingly recognised as necessary for agriculture sustainability. One of the primary benefits of drone technology lies in its ability to monitor and assess crops with unprecedented precision and assess farmland under challenging situations such as flooding. By analysing the spectral reflectance of crop leaves, drones can detect subtle variations in plant health and nutrient status. This information can then be used to generate detailed fertility maps that pinpoint areas of nutrient deficiencies or imbalances.
Armed with these fertility maps, agricultural professionals can make data-driven decisions about fertiliser application, ensuring that the proper nutrients are applied in the right amounts to the right areas. This targeted approach reduces fertiliser wastage and promotes more efficient crop nutrient uptake, improving yields and environmental sustainability.
Over or underusing water is common in traditional irrigation methods and systems because these methods often lack real-time monitoring and feedback mechanisms to adjust water application based on crop needs. Smart irrigation offers answers to the need for water conservation in agriculture sustainability. With the help of this advanced technology, farmers can build drip irrigation systems that provide a controlled flow of water to the crop's root zone. An example is MIT's GEAR Lab's innovative drip irrigation technologies that reduce water usage by over 40 per cent compared to traditional irrigation systems.
Agricultural biotechnology has redefined the way we approach crop and livestock production. Through innovative techniques like marker-assisted breeding and genetic engineering, scientists have successfully developed crop varieties and livestock breeds with enhanced traits, such as pesticide reduction, improved yield, disease resistance, and nutritional value.
Digital sensors are prominently used alongside hardware like satellites and drones to measure crop health and identify factors that could stunt its growth. It's typically programmed to send alerts so growers can promptly use the data to make irrigation, fertilisation, and pest control decisions. However, the usage could be broader, including monitoring livestock and the impacts of natural disasters like flooding on extensive farmlands.
In short, digital sensors are essential to sustainable agriculture because their data helps farmers minimize the likelihood of costly errors affecting food production.
Fleet management technology is important in sustainable agriculture because it sustains the economic viability of farm operations. For all vehicles used on the farm, these technologies provide real-time data on location, fuel consumption, and maintenance needs. With its GPS tracking capabilities, it can also be used to calculate ploughed area, providing a reliable and data-driven assessment of driver performance and how to pay them.
For sustainable agriculture to prevail, renewable energy technology must replace fossil fuels as the primary power source for agricultural operations–from cultivation and harvest to processing, storage, and transportation. Farmers must harness solar energy to power tractors, irrigation systems, and other machinery. Biomass processing technologies can generate heat and electricity in processing agricultural products. Furthermore, electric vehicles (EVs) powered by renewable energy sources can be used to transport agricultural products.
Although the term “sustainable agriculture” is gaining popularity in the local and international media, there is still much work to be done to translate this awareness into widespread implementation of sustainable practices on farms and across the entire agricultural value chain. Perhaps the start of the chain in this link should be the development of clear and comprehensive sustainability standards that are tailored to the specific context and needs of different agricultural regions and production systems.
Agritech investments are growing tremendously as founders and investors recognise the potential of technology powered by profit-for-purpose business models to transform food production, distribution, and consumption.
Earth, the only habitable planet we know of, faces threatening environmental, social, and economic challenges, many of which are directly linked to our agricultural practices. As the global population continues to rise, the demand for food also increases, putting immense pressure on our planet's resources.
With concerns about land scarcity and the environmental impact of conventional agriculture, vertical farming has emerged as a potential solution.
Traditional farming practices are no longer sustainable due to a burgeoning population and a changing climate. To ensure a secure food supply for present and future generations, we must reimagine agriculture. This much-needed transformation requires a commitment to generating and applying knowledge and innovations that promote sustainable agricultural practices,
December 27, 2023
In the face of intensifying climate change and environmental degradation, protecting natural resources has become the focus of attention of global leaders and critical stakeholders. In this search for solutions, there's a growing consensus for sustainable agriculture because it provides principles, practices, and tools that aim to strike a balance between meeting current food needs and preserving the environment for future generations.
But beyond environmental preservation, important stakeholders like the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform have expanded the concept of sustainable agriculture to include promoting the economic and social well-being of farmers and rural communities. The success stories of several initiatives that support this holistic approach demonstrate that we should embrace sustainable agriculture as a viable solution to the interconnected challenges of food production, environmental sustainability, and equitable livelihoods.
Farmers practising sustainable farming almost treat the soil like an egg because they recognise and accept the fact that soil is a finite (if not fragile) and non-renewable resource. Depleting its nutrient content or compromising its structure could jeopardise current and future crop yields. For these farmers, practices like composting, cover cropping, and reduced tillage are prioritised to nourish the soil and restore its nutrients.
Food production requires energy. In fact, a quarter of the world's energy is consumed by agriculture-related products. But farmers and other stakeholders in the agricultural value chain could save more energy– and the world would have been safer– if most of this energy were not generated using fossil fuels. With sustainable agriculture relying on renewable energy sources, energy consumption can be significantly reduced while mitigating the environmental impact of food production.
Sustainable farming is still the best way for farmers to conserve and protect water. By adopting drip irrigation, soil moisture monitoring, and other sustainable agricultural practices, farmers can significantly reduce water usage while maintaining or even improving crop yields. In arid regions, where water scarcity is a big challenge, embracing sustainable farming practices becomes even more beneficial as it ensures agriculture's long-term viability and safeguards water ecosystems.
It's become a maxim that there are no good crops without good seeds. Sustainable agriculture has allowed many farming communities worldwide to understand how to produce high yields under adverse conditions. For instance, it supports polyculture, the practice of growing multiple crops together. This practice reduces the need for chemical inputs. Also, by integrating trees into farms, adopting water conservation techniques, and implementing variable-rate fertiliser applications, farmers can promote crop resilience.
Sustainable agriculture is often described as "nature sustainability" or "natural farming" because all its underlying principles and practices aim to protect the earth's resources. Take biological seed treatment, for instance. Unlike chemical treatment, which degrades the environment, this method uses natural substances derived from plants, microorganisms, or other organic sources. According to a study, this method significantly improves seed germination, seedling emergence, plant biomass, disease control, and crop yield.
Thankfully, sustainable agriculture initiatives are working to localise access to the technology, knowledge, and finance required for sustainable food production. These interventions, supported by global players, ensure that sustainable agriculture's benefits are shared equitably and that local knowledge and expertise are valued and integrated into sustainable food systems.
Adopting sustainability standards in farming improves the stability of food production, and that, in turn, positively affects supply. But that is not where it ends. All stakeholders in the supply chain ensure that food is sustainably managed to preserve its shelf life and avoid waste.
Sustainable agriculture emphasises promoting fair and equitable economic opportunities for farmers, ensuring they receive a fair share of the value they create. JIVA prioritises this part of agricultural sustainability. While smallholder farmers are the backbone of the global food system, they struggle with poverty. The startup is tackling this challenge by providing farmers access to valuable market opportunities.
Despite the overlap in what constitutes sustainable agriculture, experts agree that resource efficiency is vital to sustaining the economic viability of farm operations. This means using resources such as land, water, energy, and labour to maximise output while minimising inputs. By adopting resource-efficient practices, farms can reduce costs, increase profitability, and protect the environment.
Scientists are actively exploring AI's potential to support agriculture sustainability. A particular research shows that AI can be beneficial in the following ways:
Prediction: AI models can analyse historical weather data, soil conditions, and other factors to predict crop yields with greater accuracy.
Resources management: AI-powered irrigation systems leverage hardware like sensors and present data analytics to optimise water usage based on real-time soil moisture and plant needs. This reduces water consumption and improves water use efficiency.
Harvesting: AI-driven vision systems can identify ripe fruits, vegetables, or grains, allowing robots to harvest only mature produce selectively, reducing losses and preserving the quality of the remaining crops.
Advanced care of crop: Labor-intensive crop care with excessive chemical inputs leads to high costs and pollution. However, robotic disease detection allows farmers to fertilise based on infection results.
Weed Control: AI-powered robots are being developed to detect and remove weeds mechanically, reducing the reliance on herbicides and labour for weed control.
Supply chain management: To ensure that food products are transported efficiently and reach consumers promptly, AI is used to track shipments, optimise routes, and predict demand patterns.
With a market value exceeding $4 billion, drones are increasingly recognised as necessary for agriculture sustainability. One of the primary benefits of drone technology lies in its ability to monitor and assess crops with unprecedented precision and assess farmland under challenging situations such as flooding. By analysing the spectral reflectance of crop leaves, drones can detect subtle variations in plant health and nutrient status. This information can then be used to generate detailed fertility maps that pinpoint areas of nutrient deficiencies or imbalances.
Armed with these fertility maps, agricultural professionals can make data-driven decisions about fertiliser application, ensuring that the proper nutrients are applied in the right amounts to the right areas. This targeted approach reduces fertiliser wastage and promotes more efficient crop nutrient uptake, improving yields and environmental sustainability.
Over or underusing water is common in traditional irrigation methods and systems because these methods often lack real-time monitoring and feedback mechanisms to adjust water application based on crop needs. Smart irrigation offers answers to the need for water conservation in agriculture sustainability. With the help of this advanced technology, farmers can build drip irrigation systems that provide a controlled flow of water to the crop's root zone. An example is MIT's GEAR Lab's innovative drip irrigation technologies that reduce water usage by over 40 per cent compared to traditional irrigation systems.
Agricultural biotechnology has redefined the way we approach crop and livestock production. Through innovative techniques like marker-assisted breeding and genetic engineering, scientists have successfully developed crop varieties and livestock breeds with enhanced traits, such as pesticide reduction, improved yield, disease resistance, and nutritional value.
Digital sensors are prominently used alongside hardware like satellites and drones to measure crop health and identify factors that could stunt its growth. It's typically programmed to send alerts so growers can promptly use the data to make irrigation, fertilisation, and pest control decisions. However, the usage could be broader, including monitoring livestock and the impacts of natural disasters like flooding on extensive farmlands.
In short, digital sensors are essential to sustainable agriculture because their data helps farmers minimize the likelihood of costly errors affecting food production.
Fleet management technology is important in sustainable agriculture because it sustains the economic viability of farm operations. For all vehicles used on the farm, these technologies provide real-time data on location, fuel consumption, and maintenance needs. With its GPS tracking capabilities, it can also be used to calculate ploughed area, providing a reliable and data-driven assessment of driver performance and how to pay them.
For sustainable agriculture to prevail, renewable energy technology must replace fossil fuels as the primary power source for agricultural operations–from cultivation and harvest to processing, storage, and transportation. Farmers must harness solar energy to power tractors, irrigation systems, and other machinery. Biomass processing technologies can generate heat and electricity in processing agricultural products. Furthermore, electric vehicles (EVs) powered by renewable energy sources can be used to transport agricultural products.
Although the term “sustainable agriculture” is gaining popularity in the local and international media, there is still much work to be done to translate this awareness into widespread implementation of sustainable practices on farms and across the entire agricultural value chain. Perhaps the start of the chain in this link should be the development of clear and comprehensive sustainability standards that are tailored to the specific context and needs of different agricultural regions and production systems.
