Nearly 1 in 3 people worldwide lack regular access to adequate food.
Resources once considered plentiful have been hit by the combined effects of an ever-growing world population and climate change, resulting in rising global temperatures and extreme weather.
Last yr, Europe experienced a summer drought that was believed to be the worst in not less than 500 years. In lots of places across Europe, this was followed by sparse rainfall during winter and water supply now declared “very precarious” by a bunch of scientists based in Austria, leading some EU governments to pass national water strategies with urgency.
Agriculture is among the many sectors most impacted, experiencing poorer harvests and better production costs. In turn, that is affecting price, quantity and quality of yields. As a robust contributor to water use – accounting for twenty-four% of water withdrawal within the EU – the agricultural sector is now looking towards technology, powered by data and AI, as a path to reducing its water consumption and overall environmental footprint while continuing to nutritiously feed the population more sustainably.
The vital importance of data-led agriculture was the main target for Microsoft’s Chief Technology Officer for Agri-Food, Ranveer Chandra, through the Forum for the Way forward for Agriculture’s 2023 Annual Conference earlier this week.
“Our goal is to construct tools that help all individuals and organizations, including farmers, to realize more,” Chandra explained during his talk on how we will use technology to grow more food, more sustainably. “The soil shouldn’t be getting any richer; the water levels are receding; there’s climate change – these make the farmers’ life much harder. One approach that can assist is that of data-driven agriculture, where our goal shouldn’t be to exchange the farmer but to reinforce the farmer’s knowledge with data and AI.”
The supply of inexpensive internet-connected sensors – underpinned by cloud technology, AI and machine learning – enables farmers to capture and track operational data, whether it’s from the soil, equipment or livestock. That data can then help generate insights to use precision agriculture or predictions farmers can use as they appear to enhance yields while conserving precious resources, including water.
Using AI technology corresponding to Project FarmVibes.AI, which runs on Microsoft Azure, it is feasible to predict and plot the best amounts of fertilizer and herbicide required based on the extent of soil nutrients, forecast temperatures and wind speeds across their fields, determine the best depth to plant seeds or irrigation needs based on soil moisture, and guide how different crops and practices can keep carbon sequestered within the soil.
Through these digital tools, farmers can augment their capabilities and knowledge about their farm with data and AI, helping them to make one of the best selections for optimizing harvests with the input of minimal resources, including water and fertilizer.
During his talk, Chandra explained that, although farmers have special knowledge of their farms, often after a long time, if not generations of experience, quite a lot of their decisions, corresponding to when or where to fertilize, are still based on rough estimates. Microsoft’s vision, he said, is augmenting farmer’s knowledge in order that they’ll make far more informed decisions: “Our goal is to remove guesswork and replace it with data and AI.”
Utilizing advanced monitoring systems to trace the consumption of water and fertilizers, farms can play a component in addressing the roughly 10% of EU greenhouse gas emissions, including nitrous oxide from fertilizer use, generated by the sector and drive Europe toward the urgent transformation needed to realize more sustainable food systems.
By higher monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions, water use and pollution, the agricultural sector can take motion to assist Europe reach each its Farm to Fork objectives to scale back the environmental and climate footprint of the EU food system and biodiversity goals as a part of the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. This might be made possible by more robust AI-powered reporting capabilities providing actionable environmental data on a scale once thought not possible.
As consumers and investors increase pressure on firms to be transparent about their agricultural sourcing, sustainability practices and supply-chain due diligence, latest processes and standards are required to construct trust. Tools corresponding to the recently announced Azure Data Manager for Agriculture help automate how environmental data is captured, stored and analyzed. Farmers have to spend less effort and time on “manually” capturing this data and might report on their environmental progress in a more accurate and detailed fashion.
Transforming the agricultural sector with data-driven innovations also contributes to achieving the EU’s Green Deal and the brand new Common Agricultural Policy objectives.
The creation of a typical European agricultural data space (AgriDataSpace) guarantees to bring together huge amounts of knowledge from multiple agri-food sources helping to optimize the economic and environmental performance of the farming sector and create additional services for farmers.
Europe can be leading the strategy to improve soil health and transform food production with ambitious targets to scale back the sector’s environmental footprint. The forthcoming latest Soil Health Law might be the primary of its kind and its success will rely on measurable, quality data.
A policy framework based on the EU’s vision for a green and digital transformation will support and promote the potential of AI in agriculture and help the sector produce high-quality nutritious food that’s grown sustainably.