Since the ancient till 1920, and the world was using the traditional agriculture ways that depends on the moved knowledge between generations through thousands of years. The first generation of agriculture!, [Agriculture 1.0] is the era of Muscles of people in help of animals and using simple tools such as using ax, chadorov . But it is labor intensive, low productivity affair which fed the people but it needs 30% of the population to do it.

As the population is increasing, there would be a way for a cheap food. The second generation of agriculture [ Agriculture 2.0 ] is applying the industrial efficiency mindset into living realm and pushing farming onto the economic fringe. Agriculture 2.0 is the start of agronomic management practices like supplemental nitrogen and new tools like synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, better seeds and more efficient specialized machines helped farmers produce more with less effort. But it has done with significant social and environmental costs. 

And then the third generation of agriculture [ Agriculture 3.0 ] is a gradual introduction of more and more advanced and precision technologies starts with guidance systems and precision farming when military GPS-signals were made accessible for public, Telematics technology to monitor vehicle fleets, high-tech sensors, cloud computing, specialized software and data management. It is a move from pure efficiency in terms of cutting costs to profitability. 

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)[Report], about 800 million people – one in nine people on earth – are suffering from hunger  and don’t have enough food to lead a healthy active life. And by 2030 about 650 million of world populations will still be undernourished. By 2050 it is expected an increase in the population to almost 10 billion and urbanization increased by 2.4 billion people added to town and cities.

The world needs drastic change to solve this problem!. It is time to disrupt system before being disrupted and produce new techniques meet the demands of the future: Demographics, Scarcity of natural resources, Climate change, and Food waste to overcome the hunger and food scarcity problem [The Four main developments are placing pressure on the legacy agriculture model].

That’s why Agriculture 4.0 is Green and based on science and technology. It aims to improve and address the real needs of consumers, Applying more advanced technology of sensors, devices, machines, Information technology and it will use sophisticated technologies such as Robots, Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning. [Read also: Five Main Technologies create the future of Agriculture]

These advanced technologies will let farmers use the minimum quantities, ability to grow crops in arid areas and use abundant and clean resources such as the sun and seawater to grow food.

Agriculture 4.0 will make businesses and agriculture industry more profitable, efficient, safer and environmentally friendly.

One of the Agriculture 4.0  goals is producing new techniques with minimum quantities of water, spaces, soil, energy, …etc. There are different ways for growing plants without soil using mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent such as Hydroponics System, Aquaponics System [a combination of aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics] or Aeroponics system. These systems save energy and can use green energy source [such as solar energy or wind], save water up to 95% or reusing water with zero [like the Aquaponics system] or depending on sea water desalination, and also they are able to grow vegetables in any region and small spaces like urban roofs. Another technique is Algae Feedstock and make use of desert and seawater.

Vertical and urban Farming, a process of growing food  in vertically stacked layer by using soil, Hydroponics system or Aeroponics systems with up to 95% less water, less fertilizer, and nutritional supplements and better productivity. Applying 3D printing technology to food, cultured meat, genetically modification & Seawater agriculture are still in the early stage but could be game changer in the next decades.

Digital transformation in agriculture will be a result of building a connected environment of data, people, sensors, processes, services, systems ….etc by using Internet of Things [IoT] technology, Analyzing Data output of sensors and devices, using other Artificial Intelligence technologies such as chatebots, machine learning, Blockchain, Drone, …etc 

Agriculture 4.0 will help in building tech-savvy, data-hungry young farmers have reinvented large-scale agriculture. By analyzing data gathered from new sensors, and connected devices. The farmers are able to track crop health, make planting decisions and guide fertilizer use to improve the efficiency of their businesses like never before.

The fourth Generation of Agriculture take us to a new era of environmental innovation that is driving better alignment between technology and environmental goals and results.

Sources: oliverwyman.com – planet.com

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