Precision farming via poorer farmers

Digital technologies like mobile phones can provide farmers customised advice

Climate change and growing population pressures are major challenges confronting the agricultural sector at large, in rich and poor countries alike. Two opposing approaches are often advocated to address these agricultural challenges. A top-down approach focuses on making farming more efficient by relying on middle and large sized farmers and agri-corporations to increase productivity. Alternatively, a bottom-up approach stresses the need to adopt more sustainable farming practices and bolster the productivity of smaller farmers. However, there is a third way which proposes combining efficiency imperatives with the need to work with smaller farmers who in the past have repeatedly been sidelined from attempts to boost agricultural yields.

Feeding the planet sustainably with the planet’s limited natural resources, amidst increasingly adverse climate change impacts, does require the use of technology and innovative approaches. In the past, however, efforts like the ‘Green Revolution’ relied on expensive chemical inputs and mechanisation, which led to ecological damage, and which displaced many poorer farmers, including sharecroppers. Yet, small farmers still comprise the bulk of rural populace in most African, Asian and South American countries, and it is vital that agricultural policies focus on their needs.

Poorer farmers typically suffer from low farm productivity, and they are facing the brunt of climate change. Yet, poorer farmers can become more resilient and productive with some targeted support. In the past, technological innovations such as mechanisation had primarily served the interests of richer farmers with farms large enough to require use of tractors, harvesters and other farm machinery. However, the profusion of digital technologies has led to the mushrooming of technologically efficient agricultural solutions, which are increasingly affordable and accessible.

UNDP has done research to demonstrate how mobile phones, remote sensing, unmanned aerial vehicles and artificial intelligence can help both rich and poorer farmers adopt precision farming practices. For example, mobile phones can be used to provide farmers customised advice on what, when and how to grow. Cell phones can also send out information about pests or other plant diseases and how to control them to all farmers within a specific locality. Mobile applications now enable farmers to snap a picture of an infected crop and receive an immediate diagnosis. Satellite imagery and machine learning algorithms can ascertain nutrient status and even facilitate crop health monitoring.

The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that a quarter of agricultural products in poorer countries are being lost at present due to climate-related stresses, such as droughts, floods and storms. Mobile apps are thus being promoted to provide key weather information to make better planting, harvesting and irrigation decisions. For example, if crop quality is expected peak quality in a week, but there is a forecast for impending heavy rain, a farmer could harvest a few days earlier and avoid crop damage.

However, despite these exciting innovations it is important to realise that technology is not a panacea for all problems. Precision farming solutions must address the expressed needs of smaller farmers instead of being thrust on them. The lack of literacy and digital skills are major bottlenecks, including for women working in agriculture. A lack of access to information in local languages can also be a major hurdle for poorer farmers adopting digital solutions. Yet, these are not insurmountable problems.

Research, and actual pilot studies by development practitioners in different countries, have demonstrated how precision farming can be effectively adapted to address very specific needs of small farmers. Replicating these limited efforts on a much wider scale will not be easy, especially in countries like ours where the plight of poorer farmers remained largely neglected due to elite capture and the recurrent pursuit of top-down agricultural policies.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 22^nd, 2022.

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