DUBAI, 22 February 2022 – Technological innovations and forward-looking strategies are leading the way in the quest to address major challenges of global food systems, as the world attempts to feed an additional two billion people by 2050, experts stressed on Monday, 21 February at Expo 2020 Dubai.
Technological innovations and forward-looking strategies are leading the way in the quest to address major challenges of global food systems, as the world attempts to feed an additional two billion people by 2050.
It is estimated that global food production will need to increase by up to 70 per cent in the next 30 years, and implementing innovative ideas is the solution to achieving food security. At the World Majlis’s ‘Farms of the Future’ panel at the Australia Pavilion on 17 February, scientists and academics discussed the effects of climate change, intensive farming, loss of arable land and water purity leading to diminished food production, and spoke about unconventional farming and high-tech solutions to increase productivity and food-production volumes with robotic systems.
Prof Dr Vesna Bengin, Co-Founder and Scientific Advisor, BioSense Institute, said: “The agricultural knowledge that we have today, what we plant, irrigate, fertilise, is the result of hundreds of years of experience, of our grandfathers and people who grew crops in certain locations and acquired this knowledge. Now due to climate change, what we do know we cannot apply or actually do apply, but the results are not optimal.
“One alternative would be to wait for the next 200 years and get a new experience and learn how to do it. That’s obviously not an option. So the best thing we can offer today is digital technologies, sensors and artificial intelligence, to quickly come up with the new recipes on what should be done and where.”
A scalable artificial intelligence farming system that uses renewable energy for year-round farming with 60 percent less water resulted in 30 per cent better yield.
At the ‘Tech For Tomorrow’ sessions at Dubai Exhibition Centre on Monday, 22 February, innovators and stakeholders shared ideas and presented case studies and disruptive technologies that could contribute to bolstering global food production.
Alanoud Al Hashmi, CEO, The Futurist Company, spoke about finding solutions aided by data and space technology. Integrating technologies imaginatively in a solar-powered capsule, GAIA, a scalable artificial intelligence farming system that uses renewable energy for year-round farming with 60 percent less water resulted in 30 per cent better yield.
For Jason Schrier, Market Solutions Manager, Livestock Improvement Corporation efficiency, productivity and sustainability were the key focus points of agri-tech solutions in the livestock sector, where Satellite Pasture And Cover Evaluation (SPACE) provides information on managing land and rotational grazing systems.
David Davies, CEO, AgUnity, stressed the importance of technology and connectivity for low-income farmers as a tool for improving efficiency in food production: “There are half a billion smallholder farmers in the world and they support an ecosystem of 3.1 billion people. We work with these farmers across 12 countries – most of them are operating between 20 and 50 per cent efficiency. So in order to solve the world food shortage problem, increase their efficiency and decrease wastage, we need to enable them by creating and introducing mobile platforms that will help them to grow.”
David Davies, CEO, AgUnity, stressed the importance of technology and connectivity for low-income farmers as a tool for improving efficiency in food production: “There are half a billion smallholder farmers in the world and they support an ecosystem of 3.1 billion people.
Innovators from Estonia, Hungary and the Republic of Korea presented the merits of indoor smart gardens, shorter supply chains, vertical farming, recipes for crop development and the use of drones for efficient water use and pesticide spraying, resulting in zero waste and increased food productivity.
The sessions formed part of Expo 2020 Dubai’s Food, Agriculture & Livelihoods Week, which runs until 23 February. It is the ninth of 10 Theme Weeks held throughout the six months of Expo 2020 Dubai, forming a key part of the Programme for People and Planet, an exchange of inspiring new perspectives to address the greatest challenges and opportunities of our time.
ameerul.hasan@thechangemakers.news