Population growth, climate change, limited natural resources, rising costs of inputs and pressure on farmland means global agriculture is facing unprecedented challenges.
Addressing them is going to require a major shift from governments, investors, and players across the food chain — a shift being termed as Agriculture 4.0.
What exactly is Agriculture 4.0?
The term was first used in 2018 when the World Government Summit published its report called Agriculture 4.0 – The Future of Farming Technology.
It refers to the next big trends in the farming industry, such as using sensors, robots, data, GPS technology and genetics to enable businesses to be more profitable, efficient and sustainable.
What does it mean in practice?
While previous agricultural revolutions have focused on increasing on-farm productivity and yields, Agriculture 4.0 is looking at the whole supply chain, using technology to improve and address the needs of farmers, processors and consumers.
At the farm business level, adopting sensors, robotics, aerial imagery and other tools will give producers the chance to farm more profitably, efficiently and in an environmentally-sustainable way.
Higher up the chain, it will bring distribution efficiencies, allowing supply chains to use data to source and deliver inputs when and where they’re needed, improve production, and better target customers.
Who will benefit?
Potentially, the whole supply chain. Farmers can utilise data to become more precise, enabling them apply products at the right time and rate, measure performance more accurately, and react to challenges more efficiently.
Meanwhile supply chains can use data to source and deliver inputs when and where they’re needed, improve production, and better target customers.
It has the potential to make the whole chain more competitive, productive and profitable, as well as enabling businesses to be more environmentally sustainable. It will also create more transparency across supply chains.
You mentioned data and robots, but what other production techniques will Agriculture 4.0 include?
Lots of producers are already embracing data, robots and other precision technology on their farms, but there are a whole host of other technologies being developed in a bid to shake up the way food is produced.
New techniques include hydroponics, which is a method of growing plants without soil, desert agriculture, genome sequencing, vertical and urban farming, genetic modification, and cultured meats.
