Farmers Review Africa March/April 2020 Farmers Review Africa March - April 2020 digital ( | Page 27
FEATURE
Looking to the future of agriculture
Food Demand Increases
The two huge drivers of food call
for—populace and profits—are at
the rise. The world’s populace is
expected to attain 9.1Bn humans in
2050, up from 7.4Bn in 2016. As
such, farmers globally must ensure
there is growth realized in food
manufacture. This will be with a
view to fulfilling the desires of the
bigger population.
A one-of-a-kind fashion is emerging
in
tremendously
developed
countries with more fitness-aware
populations. The cognizance
on starch-based crops like corn
will shift to extra plant-primarily
based proteins like soybeans and
different legumes, which allows
assist different corporations that
proportion its imaginative and
prescient of producing more crops
with fewer resources.
Consolidation Accelerates
The 2012 ag census of the US
found out a big shift in farmer
a long time that holds foremost
implications for the future. For
the primary time, farmers who
are older than 65 outnumber
farmers who are more youthful
than 45. This, unfortunately, is no
different in Africa. The distinction is
substantial, with 2.1 older farmers
for each farmer younger than 45.2
As incomes rise, consumer
choice moves from wheat and
grains to legumes, and then to
meat. When older farmers exit the
business, there are fewer more
youthful farmers to update them.
As a result, farm consolidation
might be a possible solution.
The consolidation will change
farm dynamics to larger, greater
managerial complexities.
To put it in perspective, farming will
go from a one-man show to some
thing corresponding to a medium-
to large-size business. Farm
consolidation will drive the want
for more out of doors labor. Expect
high-tech solutions like robotics to
come to the rescue. Already, dairy
farmers use robotic milkers as a
substitute for labor. Moreover, farm
equipment producers are checking
out prototypes of robot tractors
and sprayers to handle fieldwork
without human drivers. The
bounce from prototype to business
operation of robotic machinery can
be short. Many new machines are
currently ready with the electronics
to manipulate operations with little
or no human interaction. first.
For instance, drone technology,
with its policies already in place, the
technology is poised for a growth
in farm usage. Potential use of
on-farm drones by using 2050 is
huge, from imagery and product
utility to transporting materials and
jobs not but imagined. As farming
is predicated greater on complex
system with lots of electronics,
information series will play an
increasingly larger role in farm
management.
There is also the onset of gene
technology. This new technology
permits scientists to exactly edit
genes in DNA with the intention
of creating a better crop variety. In
the future, gene modifying should
allow farmers to pick out unique
crop sorts that have features
like resistance to extraordinary
diseases, drought tolerance or
greater applicable oil content. Gene
enhancing will provide a greater
diversity of vegetation that may be
grown by means of editing out traits
hampering massive production.
As we speak, there is a number
of new technology springing up
across Africa. These devices range
from assisting in alleviating post-
harvest losses, ensuring plants
acquire the required nutrients and
more, to the advent of genetically
modified food and the promise of
not just increased quantity but also
quality of the food we eat.
Many a farmer are faced with
the issue of inability to meet the
required crop output as a result of
factors such as water, climate and
other environmental effect. These
factors have been plaguing farmers
for the longest time. However, the
new technology is likely to help the
farmers combat these problems.
The only question that remains, in
this regards, is whether Africa is
ready.
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