5 minutes

They planted and we ate.. Will they eat?

Muhammad Salem Al Ali

June 23, 2022

Away from the conflicts and disputes that the world is witnessing, or what more may come from them, and also far from the pandemics and epidemics that as soon as one of them disappears and gives us a new arrival, that is, in an ideal world that walks in the journey of time from the past to the future, an urgent question stops me about what it has achieved Agriculture so far, and whether it will succeed in the future in silencing hunger and stomach cries.

There is no doubt that today’s agriculture is not like yesterday, it is much more efficient than it was centuries and decades ago, the yields are more and the quality is better, but that its path has become in a worrying situation, it needs a lot of work and improvements, especially since the challenges are not slow, and the coming ones are more severe. And it is more difficult. On the one hand, we find that the world’s population is increasing feverishly, and they will approach, according to expectations, ten billion by 2050, and on the other hand, climate changes come to you to say the final word. There is no water and rain as we are used to, and agricultural land is not as abundant as it was, even if The language of numbers does not cease to stress, support, and even stresses that the population and food equation in that year will not be correct until the entire expected demand for food at that time is taken care of, a demand that will increase from 50% to 60% from today, according to what the United Nations says. United Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

And more is to come. The expected population increase will be accompanied by a large urban expansion, which will not only increase consumption, but will change its patterns and habits. If in the nineties of the last century the individual in the world consumed an average of 36 kg of processed food and meat annually, this number will jump in the next ten years. to 45 kg.

Despite all of this, hopes are still pinned on modern technologies, because, as always, they bring us all solutions and answers, and what they used to offer to agriculture in the recent past, such as plows, irrigation and harvesting methods, are now provided in the form of super artificial intelligence, which absorbs various changes, and prescribes the most effective treatments.

Yes, there is a lot to come for the benefit of agriculture and farmers. Artificial intelligence, through micro-imaging devices and drones, collects huge amounts of data in real time, then processes it and presents it with real-time facts and solutions to farmers. It monitors the quality of soil in terms of composition and texture, and monitors the safety of crops in terms of Diseases, insects and pests, and it tells intelligently that takes into account the needs of each species and species, spreads fertilizers and sprays pesticides, and it analyzes the weather and its fluctuations, and makes comparisons, so that it can monitor the stages of growth from seeds and offshoots to fruits and full maturity, and it is sufficient to send a simple notice to the farmer, for example, “Happy The fruit is ripe for harvest!”

The potential does not stop here, but extends to include livestock, as a key component of the agricultural economy, where artificial intelligence algorithms track herds, monitor their health and food safety, and then notify farmers as soon as they detect bugs and unusual patterns, which often indicate diseases and malnutrition.

Thus, we find that the future of agriculture depends crucially on the adoption of knowledge solutions, and in order to employ the enormous potential of artificial intelligence in the field of agriculture, these solutions must become easily accessible, more applicable, and most importantly, be reasonable and affordable for everyone, whether in rich or poor countries. Only then will artificial intelligence succeed in creating a huge agricultural revolution that will feed humans in the future, even if they increase billions and billions.

Founder of Suhail Smart Solutions 

To read the previous articles of the writer please click on its name.