Immediate digital intervention needed to double food production

Despite being a small country, Bangladesh has a population of around 170 million, making it one of the densely populated countries in the world. The scarcity of resources can be considered as a major challenge to meet the requirement of food and water for the growing population.

The world population is expected to grow to 10 billion by 2050 and food requirements will also increase by 70 per cent globally. The population of Bangladesh represents 2.11 per cent of the total world population whereas our cultivable land is equivalent to 2 per cent of the total cultivable land in the world.

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The food requirement for Bangladesh will increase by 80 per cent to 85 per cent within the next 30 years.

At present, per capita food consumption expenditure in Bangladesh is around 35 per cent of per capita income and our food consumption expenditure is worth $130 billion for the total population. By 2050, the projected food consumption expenditure will be approximately $533 billion in our country.

The scarcity of water resources is another crucial challenge for the food production process. Despite the abundance of water in the world, only 2.5 per cent of water is usable by humans as freshwater. The remaining 97.5 per cent is in the oceans, soils, and icecaps. Currently, agriculture accounts for 70 per cent of all freshwater withdrawals globally.

Climate change appears to be a matter of concern when it comes to producing enough food for the growing population. Moreover, manpower engagement in agriculture is declining day by day in Bangladesh.

The majority of young people are reluctant to engage in the agriculture sector. So, we need to increase efficiency in terms of utilising our limited resources to enhance the productive capacity and meet the rising food requirement.

Digital agriculture can be an appropriate solution in this regard. The adoption of digital technologies in the agricultural process can result in a revolutionary change to ensure sustainable growth for the agriculture industry.

Development of high-yield variety & mitigation of post-harvesting loss

From the perspective of Bangladesh, the whole food production process requires someone to go to the field to cultivate, collect and forward it to the factory for processing and then bring it to the market for consumers.

There will not be so many shortcuts in terms of the whole process. High-yielding variety development, farm mechanisation, and loss minimisation in agriculture will have to be our priority.

Food security can be ensured by developing high-yielding variety. But the process of variety development will take time, and sometimes it is a bit uncertain as well.

Digital agriculture can ensure proper monitoring of agricultural machinery for appropriate usage and precision farming.

Cost-effective sharing of expensive agri-machinery

Digital agriculture will allow farmers to share expensive farming machinery on a pay-for-use basis. It will certainly help the small-scale farmers who can't afford to buy it. Farmers can place a request for agri-machinery and services using the app as well as can do financial transaction.

Tech-driven solution to facilitate logistics support for perishable goods

Tech-driven supply chain solutions can be provided for vegetables, fruits and other perishable goods to eliminate the presence of intermediaries and ensure better prices for farmers.

Sensory technologies and data science-driven demand-supply synchronisation

The use of seed-to-plate concept can increase crop yield to a large extent. Farmers will be able to make informed decisions by conducting predictive analysis with the help of soil sensors, imaging drones, and other devices which will minimise food wastage and maximise crop yield.

Digitisation & optimisation of dairy supply chain process

Dairy farmers can maximise their profit by incorporating digitisation in terms of cattle monitoring, milk procurement, and cold chain management process. Radio frequency identification can be used for cattle tracking and animal health monitoring.

Vertical farming

To deal with the challenge of shrinking arable land in Bangladesh and meet the rising food requirement, vertical farming can be a feasible solution. It involves the process of growing crops in vertically stacked layers by facilitating controlled-environment agriculture to optimise plant growth.

Some advantages of using vertical farming: enhanced productive capacity along with a smaller area of land requirement; reliable and consistent crop production throughout the year as vertical farming doesn't rely on the weather; minimisation of the usage of water resources; and reduction in labour cost and transport cost.

The major challenge of vertical farming in Bangladesh is its affordability towards farmers due to the high cost associated with set-ups and required technologies. The government can initiate the demonstration by providing necessary support for set-ups and required technologies and involving private investors in it.

Drip Irrigation

Drip irrigation system can deliver water and fertilizers directly to the root zone of plants using the pipe known as drippers at the right time with the proper amount to facilitate the optimal growth of plants. This type of micro-irrigation system can ensure efficiency in terms of water usage by saving around 70 per cent of water. It can result in a substantial increase in terms of crop productivity.

The food requirement will be almost twice the existing figure by 2050. To meet the growing requirement, food import might not be a feasible solution considering the current economic context.

Recently, the foreign exchange reserve has declined significantly in Sri Lanka due to food import, forcing the government to declare state of emergency over food shortages. Consequently, the price of basic commodities has risen sharply.

The foreign exchange reserve of Bangladesh stood at $46 billion as of September this year. In our country, we don't want to experience the same scenario as Sri Lanka did. So, this is the right time to create a roadmap towards digital agriculture.

In Bangladesh, it took 25 years to move from power tiller to tractor technology. Even our harvesting technology is still at its initial stage. Compared to Vietnam, we are lagging behind for 20 years in terms of incorporating harvesting technology.

Still, it will take seven to eight years more to popularise this harvesting technology in our country. Considering this time gap, labour shortage will be aggravated along with the increase in per capita income. The policymakers should take initiatives to expedite the digitisation process of agriculture.

In our neighbouring countries, most of the agro-based apps have been developed by people associated with electrical and computer engineering backgrounds. So, we need to bring personnel stemming from these backgrounds and develop a proper understanding of digital agriculture. Moreover, a combined project can be taken by incorporating both engineering and agricultural universities to facilitate the learning process regarding digital agriculture.

To enable the exchange process, a cross-functional team can be formed by including digital agriculture in the course curriculum. A collaborative wing can be created by incorporating the agriculture ministry and the ICT ministry to initiate the development of digitalisation in the agricultural industry that will monitor and control the execution of policy framework.

Our government can provide funding facilities and technical expertise to the startups that are associated with agri-tech, which will motivate young people to be a part of this digitalisation process. Most importantly, the immediate intervention will have to be ensured by policymakers to digitise agriculture activities for quality output and facilitate sustainable growth in this sector. 

The author is executive director of ACI Motors Ltd.