Smart solutions in agriculture: Prospect and challenge

While high yielding varieties and agronomic good practice play a vital role, modern technologies like IoTs, machine learning, AI and big data can create a dynamic shift towards modernising the agricultural sector

No wonder agricultural sector has experienced delayed adoption of Information Technology compared to other business sectors. Agriculture, as a profession, was less attractive to urban population. However, the fascinating fact is, organizations mostly IT firms turned their attention towards agricultural sector. This ultimately creates an immense opportunity and extends a scope of collaboration between different domain of experts and disciplines.

Starting from GIS application for site-specific agriculture and mobile phone use for agricultural market information access to present-day uses of agri-robotics and Internet of Things (IoT), this collaboration has paved many ways. While this write up may not reflect on diverse set of issues, it primarily concentrates on the prospect and challenges that have to overcome for successful implementation of modern technologies like remote sensing and IoT, particularly in Bangladesh context.

The latest technologies like machine learning, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data management create a great opportunity across agricultural discipline yet we have to ask ourselves about our preparedness at national, institutional and individual level.

Opportunities created by modern technologies

For any change movement, top management support is an essential prerequisite. The present Govt. manifesto for digital Bangladesh is therefore an important step towards this development. Responses from both public and private organizations are also remarkable. As a results, many promising and time-demanding IT solutions have been launched. Nonetheless, we have to be very conscious to appraise their success and real impact to the development.

The UN Dept. of Economic and Social Affair (DESA), 2015 reported world population will be reaching 9.7 billion by the year 2050 and in Bangladesh it will be reached at 230-250 million. UNDP report says, 2 million people are added every year to this population while we are losing 1% of agricultural land every year. Therefore, we can easily assume the importance of increased production and supply of nutrient-rich diet to this population. While high yielding varieties and agronomic good practice play a vital role, modern technologies like IoTs, machine learning, AI and big data can create a dynamic shift towards modernizing the agricultural sector. The world have already seen the power of informatics in molecular biology and genome sequencing. ‘Big data’ management can be used to predict farming situation better, cloud computing and data mining provide sufficient capabilities and solutions to sustain, store and analyze the huge amount of data generated from different computing devices.

IoT, on the other hand, is a highly promising family of technologies that build using sensors capable of offering many solutions to crop, livestock and fisheries. Sensors collect and monitor important agro-based indices such as light, temperature, humidity, soil moisture, water level, soil nutrients and soil PH as well as animal behavior. Study suggests IoT can increase yield by 1.75%, drop energy cost by $7-$13 per acres and drop water requirement for irrigation by 8%. Market of IoTs in agricultural is expected to grow to $28.65 billion by 2023 (Report Buyer, 2018). A collaborative approach is however much required to come up with solutions that are more tailored to individual cases. In fact, modern technologies like IoTs use in agriculture is more challenging than other sectors because no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution is available.

Challenges

The first and foremost challenge is “Connectivity” which inhibit farmers’ ability to take advantage of new technologies. According to BTRC (August, 2018), we have 90.50 million Internet subscribers, among which 84.68% access Internet through mobile device. However, we don’t have any census data regarding how many farmers use smart devices and how many of them use those devices for agricultural purposes. Smart devices are mostly in hands of large agri-corporations that has to be reached to the rural farmers, otherwise achieving wider success may not be possible.  

Second prevailing problem is “awareness”. Interestingly, a US-based survey report says, 68% among 1600 farmers heard the term IoT. Application of such device particularly in the context of Bangladesh which characterized by crop diversity and small land holdings is more challenging rather than use in a large and monocrop farm.

Besides, we need to consider both manufacturer and maintenance “cost” of such devices. In farming situation, ‘no two cases are identical’ and in agronomical fields, the hardware and software maintenance cost is expected to be higher than usual as those devices have to be exposed to harsh environment like wind, storm, water, heat or cold and physical damage.

Fourth, finding right “business model” is also a concern. In general, most of the users do not want to pay for an application. So, finding alternative business model is much essential than traditional business model.

Fifth, IT security aspects of such devices should also not be ignored. People might better able to predict farming situation and production, therefore manipulation of product pricing could also be possible.

Finally, we need skilled human resource. The amount of data that could be generated from such devices will be challenging to analysis. Therefore, we need people skills in data science. Regarding this phenomenon, we have to look if our local universities possess the strength to produce such type of human resource.

How to encounter the challenges

From IT design aspect, we should use an open architecture solution so that the applications are scalable and interoperable, and at the same time cost-effective.

From human resources aspect, we need to emphasize more on awareness creation and dissemination, plus training and development of necessary human resources in the subject domain.

IoT and AI like technologies might provide a big benefit but key to success depends on its collaboration approach with farmers. So, connectivity, awareness and fear of technology must be overcome.

Holistically we need a “Community of Contributors” that comprises of agri-input suppliers, agri-business practitioners, software and service providers, development expert and academicians with government’s continuous support for augmenting the growth of this sector.

The author is a Professor of Agricultural Extension and Information System, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207, E-mail: [email protected]

 

Smart solutions in agriculture: Prospect and challenge

While high yielding varieties and agronomic good practice play a vital role, modern technologies like IoTs, machine learning, AI and big data can create a dynamic shift towards modernising the agricultural sector

No wonder agricultural sector has experienced delayed adoption of Information Technology compared to other business sectors. Agriculture, as a profession, was less attractive to urban population. However, the fascinating fact is, organizations mostly IT firms turned their attention towards agricultural sector. This ultimately creates an immense opportunity and extends a scope of collaboration between different domain of experts and disciplines. Starting from GIS application for site-specific agriculture and mobile phone use for agricultural market information access to present-day uses of agri-robotics and Internet of Things (IoT), this collaboration has paved many ways. While this write up may not reflect on diverse set of issues, it primarily concentrates on the prospect and challenges that have to overcome for successful implementation of modern technologies like remote sensing and IoT, particularly in Bangladesh context. The latest technologies like machine learning, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data management create a great opportunity across agricultural discipline yet we have to ask ourselves about our preparedness at national, institutional and individual level. Opportunities created by modern technologies For any change movement, top management support is an essential prerequisite. The present Govt. manifesto for digital Bangladesh is therefore an important step towards this development. Responses from both public and private organizations are also remarkable. As a results, many promising and time-demanding IT solutions have been launched. Nonetheless, we have to be very conscious to appraise their success and real impact to the development. The UN Dept. of Economic and Social Affair (DESA), 2015 reported world population will be reaching 9.7 billion by the year 2050 and in Bangladesh it will be reached at 230-250 million. UNDP report says, 2 million people are added every year to this population while we are losing 1% of agricultural land every year. Therefore, we can easily assume the importance of increased production and supply of nutrient-rich diet to this population. While high yielding varieties and agronomic good practice play a vital role, modern technologies like IoTs, machine learning, AI and big data can create a dynamic shift towards modernizing the agricultural sector. The world have already seen the power of informatics in molecular biology and genome sequencing. Big data management can be used to predict farming situation better, cloud computing and data mining provide sufficient capabilities and solutions to sustain, store and analyze the huge amount of data generated from different computing devices. IoT, on the other hand, is a highly promising family of technologies that build using sensors capable of offering many solutions to crop, livestock and fisheries. Sensors collect and monitor important agro-based indices such as light, temperature, humidity, soil moisture, water level, soil nutrients and soil PH as well as animal behavior. Study suggests IoT can increase yield by 1.75%, drop energy cost by $7-$13 per acres and drop water requirement for irrigation by 8%. Market of IoTs in agricultural is expected to grow to $28.65 billion by 2023 (Report Buyer, 2018). A collaborative approach is however much required to come up with solutions that are more tailored to individual cases. In fact, modern technologies like IoTs use in agriculture is more challenging than other sectors because no one-size-fits-all solution is available. Challenges The first and foremost challenge is Connectivity which inhibit farmers ability to take advantage of new technologies. According to BTRC (August, 2018), we have 90.50 million Internet subscribers, among which 84.68% access Internet through mobile device. However, we dont have any census data regarding how many farmers use smart devices and how many of them use those devices for agricultural purposes. Smart devices are mostly in hands of large agri-corporations that has to be reached to the rural farmers, otherwise achieving wider success may not be possible. Second prevailing problem is awareness. Interestingly, a US-based survey report says, 68% among 1600 farmers heard the term IoT. Application of such device particularly in the context of Bangladesh which characterized by crop diversity and small land holdings is more challenging rather than use in a large and monocrop farm. Besides, we need to consider both manufacturer and maintenance cost of such devices. In farming situation, no two cases are identical and in agronomical fields, the hardware and software maintenance cost is expected to be higher than usual as those devices have to be exposed to harsh environment like wind, storm, water, heat or cold and physical damage. Fourth, finding right business model is also a concern. In general, most of the users do not want to pay for an application. So, finding alternative business model is much essential than traditional business model. Fifth, IT security aspects of such devices should also not be ignored. People might better able to predict farming situation and production, therefore manipulation of product pricing could also be possible. Finally, we need skilled human resource. The amount of data that could be generated from such devices will be challenging to analysis. Therefore, we need people skills in data science. Regarding this phenomenon, we have to look if our local universities possess the strength to produce such type of human resource. How to encounter the challenges From IT design aspect, we should use an open architecture solution so that the applications are scalable and interoperable, and at the same time cost-effective. From human resources aspect, we need to emphasize more on awareness creation and dissemination, plus training and development of necessary human resources in the subject domain. IoT and AI like technologies might provide a big benefit but key to success depends on its collaboration approach with farmers. So, connectivity, awareness and fear of technology must be overcome. Holistically we need a Community of Contributors that comprises of agri-input suppliers, agri-business practitioners, software and service providers, development expert and academicians with governments continuous support for augmenting the growth of this sector. The author is a Professor of Agricultural Extension and Information System, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207, E-mail: [email protected]