PROJECT MEMBER INPUT
WATER SCARCITY
Water scarcity is an issue that must be tackled a soon as possible. With an increasing global population, the available freshwater has been decreasing decade after decade. The Food and Agriculture Organiation (FAO) of the United Nations states immediate action should be taken to invest in water harvesting, rainforest conservations, or opting for modern sustainable irrigation systems. Currently the UN states “60% of irrigated cropland is water stressed and 11 countries, all in Northern Africa and Asia, need to urgently adopt sound water accounting, clear allocation, modern technologies and to shift to less thirsty crops.” In short, the rural poor farmers must switch over to adopt new technologies to move past the water obstacles, however it is a struggle to convince these farmers that the upfront capital costs will be more cost-effective in their future. As well as transitioning to modern technologies, attempting to reverse climate change is also a priority. High temperatures, droughts, and increases in carbon dioxide affect crops, fisheries, and livestock. Another example of resource scarcity is limited land resources, if residential areas get become unlivable from rising sea levels and increasing natural disasters, pushing for a need for farmers to adapt quickly and switch to become more technologically efficient. For a switch to occur, farmers must also have access to stable internet in rural areas. In Australia, companies such as Wi-Sky, an internet infrastructure company, is taking action in their own hands to build its own towers in rural areas to make it easier for farmers to incorporate agtech to their business.
BIOENGINEERING
Bioengineering is becoming more of an emerging field as it is being seen as a solution to many problems, especially if used correctly with agriculture. Bioengineering its when scientist go in to edit the genes or clone different organisms. The emerging technological advancements in this field would help solve so many problems from healthcare to food shortages. Some changes to these crops can be as small as making them more resistant to certain pesticides to helping these crops grow in places where they wouldn’t usually be able to. With all these great possibilities only the sky is the limit even with government regulation through the USDA.
With emerging companies state side like Indigo, they are bringing forward profitable farms, lower carbon foot print, and for consumers to have access to healthy food. They are reintroducing microbes into the seeds to help provide a healthier, stronger, and plentiful crop. With that said, who’s to say this tech wouldn’t be common practice for every farmer stateside while other countries may use other forms of bioengineering on their crops. Emerging tech like vertical farming may just be a short-term usage until all of our crops are grown in a lab unless government intervention. Even just using this company as a base line, it would help the expansion into Mars because these seeds are resistant to some stressful situations and come out fine.
NEW JOBS
In downtown Westbrook, Maine, the city council approved of an $60 million arrangement with The Day Brothers to create a 300,000 sq ft development that contains "419 parking spaces, 50 middle-market apartments and a four- story 70,000-square foot hydroponic greenhouse.” Throughout history agriculture was the center of cities and towns providing jobs and food. Civilizations transferred from hunter gatherer societies to agricultural societies. Now that shift will go from traditional farming to vertical farming etc. Cities like Westbrook are investing in these developments because they will provide jobs and attract people to live and work there. Westbrook is on track to become a self-sufficient city. This development was created to fix the land and water shortage issues in Westbrook in light of climate change. They realize that there is no better time to invest in their city, while others may fall behind.
5G TECHNOLOGY
As human society utilization of robotic and the digital space skyrocket, the demand for faster and more responsive wireless networks continues to grow. To solve the matter lies within the next generation of cellular network, commonly called 5g. in the realm of Agriculture the demand for 5G is no different, as the technology with the area continues to evolve. In utilizing 5g, farmers can monitor field condition and be alert when crops would need fertilizer, pesticides, or watering. As more and more farms are managed through the use of directing self-driving tractors, piloting agricultural drones, tracking livestock it puts a heavy strain on connectivity resulting in latency and lag when interacting with the technology. With the promise of 5g the results for agriculture are shown in the improved quality in produce, an increase in yield of crops, and higher profits. As Agriculture is a multi-billion dollar industry, it accounts for nearly 1% of GDP in the UK
With the human population continues to growing at an exponential rate, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that farmer will have to grow 70% more food in the next 30 year to avoid mass starvation. To meet this demands farmers need to use the latest technology to grow more and use fewer workers. The implementation of 5G speeds and bandwidth will lead to more agriculture uses emerging, taking IoT to new heights. But 5G networks will need to increase the quality of service and utilize those emerging features, such as network slicing at the core network.