INGENIEUR
efficiency , resilience , digitisation , agility , and sustainability . Lower sales have pressured margins , necessitating further cost containment . Grid-locked global supply chains have highlighted the importance of having more local providers , which could increase the resilience of smaller farms . Mobility restrictions have further affected farms heavily reliant on manual labour .
Additionally , significant environmental benefits from decreased travel and consumption during the crisis are likely to drive a desire for more local , sustainable sourcing , requiring producers to adjust long-standing practices . In short , the crisis has accentuated the necessity of more widespread digitisation and automation , while suddenly shifting demand and sales channels have underscored the value of agile adaptation .
The challenge the industry is facing is thus twofold : infrastructure must be developed to enable the use of connectivity in farming , and where connectivity already exists , strong business cases must be made in order for solutions to be adopted . The good news is that connectivity coverage is increasing almost everywhere . By 2030 , we expect advanced connectivity infrastructure of some type to cover roughly 80 % of the world ’ s rural areas . The notable exception is Africa , where only a quarter of its area will be covered . The key , then , is to develop more — and more effective — digital tools for the industry and to foster widespread adoption of them .
As connectivity increasingly takes hold , these tools will enable new capabilities in agriculture : a . Massive Internet of Things . Low-power networks and cheaper sensors will set the stage for the IoT to scale up , enabling such use cases as precision irrigation of field crops , monitoring of large herds of livestock , and tracking of the use and performance of remote buildings and large fleets of machinery . b . Mission-critical services . Ultra-low latency and improved stability of connections will foster confidence to run applications that demand absolute reliability and responsiveness , such as operating autonomous machinery and drones . c . Near-global coverage . If LEO satellites attain their potential , they will enable even the most remote rural areas of the world to use extensive digitisation , which will enhance global farming productivity .
Potential value initially will accrue to large farms that have more investing power and better incentives to digitise . Connectivity promises easier surveying of large tracts , and the fixed costs of developing IoT solutions are more easily offset in large production facilities than on small family farms . Crops like cereals , grains , fruits , and vegetables will generate most of the value we identified . Connectivity enables more use cases in these sectors than in meat and dairy , because of the large average size of farms , relatively higher player consolidation , and better applicability of connected technologies , as IoT networks are especially adapted to static monitoring of many variables . It ’ s also interesting to note that Asia should garner about 60 % of the total value simply because it produces the biggest volume of crops .
Water Issues in Agriculture
Water makes life possible on earth , yet 97 % is seawater . Of the remaining 3 %, roughly twothirds is locked in the polar ice caps . Much of the groundwater on land is too deep to ever be exploitable , leaving only about 0.3 % of the global total for life on land to use ( Robinson & Ward , 1990 ). This 0.3 % is highly unevenly distributed , with some countries receiving excess amounts of water and others not receiving enough . Attempts to quantify the levels of water scarcity faced by various countries have been made in a variety of studies . Falkenmark ( 1989 ) developed the concept of the “ water barrier ”. This was set at a level of 2000 people per flow unit ( one million cubic metres ). If a country has more people per flow unit than this , further economic development will not be possible . Each country is placed in one of five possible ranges :
Water Barrier Scale classification for countries Conditions
Persons / flow unit Well watered conditions < 100 Mid-European 100 – 600 Water stressed 600 – 1000 Chronic scarcity 1000 – 2000
Beyond the water barrier
> 2000
50 VOL 84 OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2020