Smart Agriculture for Raising Farm Productivity

Tanzila Rahman UAO, Ramu, Coxs Bazar

Tanzila Rahman and Prof. M Zahidul Haque

Use of ‘Rechargeable Battery’ as a source of energy is a tool for practicing Smart Agriculture because it is a renewable energy source which reduces the use of fossil fuel thereby help in reducing Green House Gas (CHG) emissions on and off the farm. Other on-farm renewable and environment-friendly technologies include: Solar thermal infrastructure, Wind turbines, anaerobic digestion, etc.

Smart Agriculture and Smart Farming is synonymous. Smart farming in agriculture involves various software and equipment to optimize and automate routine processes toward ensuring environment-friendly production plus raising agricultural productivity.

Prof. M Zahidul Haque

The term SMART stands for: S-Specific, M-Measurable, A-Achievable, R-Relevant, T-Time bound On the other hand, Agriculture is the art and science of growing crops through the use of appropriate and sustainable technologies.

In order to making agriculture ‘SMART’, use of modern digital information and communications technologies become imperative for increasing quantity and quality of farm products. The Internet of Things (IoT) is not only providing solutions to often time-consuming and tedious tasks but paving the way to bringing about a Third Green Revolution.

Smart Farming and IoT-driven agriculture has the following technologies:

--Sensors: for soil, water, light, humidity and temperature management

--Software: IoT platforms—specialized software solutions

--Connectivity: Cellular and LoRa (Long Range)—a speed modulation technique

--Location: GPS, Satellite

--Robotics: Autonomus tractors, environ-friendly pest and disease control

--Agricultural Drones: Ground-based and aerial drones for crop health assessment, irrigation, crop monitoring, soil and field analysis, etc.

--Data analysis

Meanwhile Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) has emerged to boosting the mart Agriculture system. Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) is a set of farming methods to increasing the resilience and productivity of land affected by Climate Change. CSA ensures: food security for farmers and their families, farmers are more prepared to face the present and future effects of climate change, it helps in reducing greenhouse gasses generated as a result of agricultural activities.

Esime Jeniaia, a CSA farmers who worked with Concern Malawi informed—“With the same field, I used to harvest one bag of maize but now I harvest eight bags”. Through application of climate smart agriculture methods her maize production has not only increased but income as well and brought solvency to her family. Now they could send their children to school with full bellies. Her self-confidence and self-respect had also enhanced. Esime fostered a change in gender dynamics in her area of Malawi. In fact, smart agriculture practices can enhance women’s participation and empowerment plus gender equity.

Now another effective tool has been incorporated into smart agriculture—Artificial Intelligence (AI) which provides the farmers with forecasting and predictive information to reducing errors thereby minimizes the risk of crop failure. The AI uses data to help shorten crop cycles, measuring and monitoring different plant growth factors including light intensity, temperature, nutrient levels, etc. AI also improves harvest quality and accuracy in precision agriculture.

The world population may explode to 9.8 billion by 2050. So, the world needs to get prepared to feeding the ever increasing population. Arable land is fast depleting. Under this alarming situation, intervention by smart agriculture strategies can boost crop production through growing crops smartly.

Agriculture is the mainstay of Bangladesh’s economy which accounts for around 14% of GDP and employs about 41% of the country’s total labor force.

Smart Agriculture can play vital role to increasing productivity in the entire agricultural sector including Livestock. Fisheries and Forestry. It can bring improvement to the living standards of the farmers by increasing income. The Government of Bangladesh has attached priority on making Bangladesh from digital to smart Bangladesh. Smart Agriculture is one of the major components toward designing a smart Bangladesh. Related Ministries including the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Bangladesh are working on it.

In a simple sentence—“Smart Agriculture means planting more on less land to produce more with less inputs”. Smart Agriculture enables farmers to monitor the processes on their farms and to take strategic decision remotely and reliably using their tablet, phones and other smart devices without any hassle. Smart Agriculture system can effectively contribute to raising farm productivity and bring economic emancipation.

(Tanzila Rahman (BCS-Agri) is Upazila Agriculture Officer, Ramu, Cox’s Bazar and Prof. M Zahidul Haque recently retired as Professor and was also a former Dean of Faculty of Agriculture at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka.)