Three ways to transform agriculture

Islamabad:

The future of agriculture depends on the integration of climate-smart technologies and education. By leveraging artificial intelligence, big data and innovation, developing countries can turn agricultural challenges into development opportunities.

Given current trends in population and wealth growth and the impacts of climate change, another quantum leap in food systems is required. The Green Revolution, which began half a century ago, focused on resource-intensive agriculture that greatly increased productivity through the development of high-yielding varieties such as rice, wheat, and maize.

The next Green Revolution must be based on climate-smart agriculture aiming for net zero emissions, while achieving a quantum leap in food production to deliver benefits for all, including people in poverty and hunger.

This requires knowledge-intensive agriculture that leverages digital but low-cost technologies to address climate change. To achieve this, capacity building for key stakeholders in the agricultural sector is critical, especially by upgrading agricultural higher education in developing countries to enable tech-savvy youth to succeed as ‘agribusiness’.

Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things, blockchain and big data analytics are bringing disruptive changes to agriculture.

For example, the analysis of satellite images can identify the most suitable land for specific agricultural crops. An AI-powered agricultural drone sprays the minimum amount of fertilizer to maximize agricultural production and provides traceability of fertilizer use for low-carbon farming.

Farmers could harvest crops by operating automated harvesting machines at home, and the delivery of their food to consumers could be tracked using blockchain technology to improve food safety. This is no longer a dream.

If the adoption of high technology is successful, agriculture can be an important engine of economic growth. Typically, the share of agriculture in gross domestic product decreases and the share of manufacturing and services increases as the country makes progress in economic development.

The food industry, however, has the potential to provide quality jobs by driving the economy. For example, an economic corridor study in Bangladesh identified food processing as one of the highest priority industries for economic diversification.

Among developed countries, the Netherlands is the second largest exporter of agricultural products in the world and an exemplary case of agriculture leading the country’s sustainable development.

The Netherlands has a well-established framework that emphasizes collaboration between government, industry and knowledge institutions. Agricultural innovation is supported by world-renowned agricultural universities such as Wageningen University and Research, which conduct leading research and undertake knowledge and technology transfer, as well as supporting agricultural start-ups.

There are many challenges facing agriculture in developing Asia and the Pacific. The majority of farmers in the region are smallholders and agricultural extension services may not be able to function as a high-tech transport hub on their own due to lack of facilities and expertise.

Agricultural universities are better placed to adopt technology by collaborating with experts such as industries and agricultural workers.

However, young people are less interested because they see agriculture as a labor-intensive, low-tech, and low-wage occupation. Many graduates of agricultural universities tend to seek stable government jobs rather than contributing to the agricultural industry.

The key to the next Green Revolution lies in transforming agricultural education and harnessing high-tech innovations to promote sustainable development and economic growth in developing countries.

What are the solutions? The key is to transform agricultural higher education by fostering collaboration across disciplines and countries to adopt technology.

First, agricultural higher education must facilitate deep interdisciplinary collaboration. Artificial intelligence and big data analysis are led by computer and geospatial scientists, and agricultural experts need to work together.

Similarly, mechanical engineers can advise on the use of drones and robots. High technologies can be scaled if they are commercially viable and economically and financially viable, so the social sciences can play a role.

Today, many agricultural universities have faculties of engineering or technology, but this is not enough. A typical example is the interdisciplinary thesis laboratory implemented in the Netherlands.

For example, graduate students at three universities in the Netherlands (a Leiden-Delft-Erasmus university alliance) are working on the same problems to develop multidisciplinary solutions for agri-food system innovation. Similar mechanisms can be incorporated in agricultural higher education institutions.

Second, agricultural universities lead to the adoption of local technology, especially with the youth for the benefit of farmers. The National Instrumentation Center for Environmental Management at Seoul National University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences maintains high-value agricultural research equipment and makes its facilities commercially available to industries, universities, and research institutions.

The center also hosts active school children for educational tours, which can help change the traditional perception of agriculture as a labor-intensive occupation. Most importantly, agricultural universities must ensure that high technologies benefit local farmers in their country and regional context.

Finally, a global alliance to adopt agricultural technology can catalyze this transformation. The Republic of Korea is interested in establishing a global network of high-tech agricultural universities for the climate.

A leading agricultural university in each sub-region could serve as a regional hub, absorbing the latest evidence-based agricultural technologies from global hubs and disseminating them to each sub-regional context, taking into account the challenges faced by farmers.

Some of the best agricultural universities in the Asian subregions, such as Bangladesh Agricultural University and Faisalabad University of Agriculture in Pakistan, are showing strong interest in joining the network.

The idea comes is timely for the reform of agricultural higher education. The next Green Revolution based on knowledge-intensive agriculture is in the hands of our young people, and we must give them the wisdom and courage to embrace new technologies across geographical, academic and institutional boundaries.

If countries and universities, along with international organizations, come together to do this, we can turn current challenges into opportunities, making agriculture the future development engine of developing countries.

Ryotaro Hayashi is Senior Social Sector Economist, ADB Human and Social Development Sectors, Sectors Group. Noriko Sato is Senior Natural Resources Specialist, ADB Sectors Group, based in Pakistan. and Changgil Kim is a visiting scholar at the Asia Center of Seoul National University