Agriculture: The Next Revolution

Advances in scientific knowledge of plants, soil, and climate from molecular to macro scale are opening up new opportunities to revolutionise agriculture and can have massively positive impact on yields to feed an ever growing world population:

• Advances in molecular biology and genetics of plants, and of the microbiome of the soil
• Sensors, monitoring, and real-time availability of data and images via satellites or drones for soil mapping and yield mapping
• Adoptive irrigation
• Improved conversion effciency of feed into animal protein
• Big data analytics, machine learning, and image recognition and processing
• Advances in agricultural equipment technology, including GPS guided equipment, and fleet management
• Distributed ledger technology (DLT, blockchain) for improved supply chain transparency

However, there are also negative developments that pose serious threats:

• Excessive depletion of natural resources including soil and water
• Impact of climate change and increasing frequency of extreme weather events
• Malnutrition in the form of undernourishment, obesity, and micronutrient deficiency placing heavy burdens on people’s health and well-being and on public health systems
• Massive loss of biodiversity
• Food waste of over 30% that could eradicate all hunger if redirected; with related aerobic and anaerobic degradation causing additional, but preventable greenhouse gas emissions
• Accelerating speed of change causing tension and conflicts between early and late adopters
• Misuse of emerging technologies by rogue players acting outside legal or ethical boundaries