Trends and Prospects of Smart Agriculture in the Context of Climate Change
Hung, Chia Hung（China Productivity Center Smart Agriculture Promotion Department ）
1. Impact of climate change on agriculture
Climate change brings multifaceted and profound impacts on agricultural production, and elevates the uncertainty and risk of agriculture, including rising temperatures, frequent extreme weather events, uneven rainfall, and rising sea levels.
These changes directly or indirectly affect various aspects of the agricultural ecosystem, crop growth and development, and soil quality. For example, global temperature increases directly influence crop growth and development. High temperatures may cause some crops to flower and mature earlier and affect yields and quality. Output may be reduced because some crops may not be able to adapt to extreme heat.
Additionally, the frequent occurrence of extreme weather events, such as floods, storms, and droughts, has caused severe losses to agriculture and direct damages to farmlands, crops, and water sources. Flooding destroys agricultural land, storms ruin crops, and drought reduces water availability, all of which directly threaten the stability of agricultural production.
Moreover, uneven rainfall also leads to frequent occurrences of drought or excessive precipitation, further affecting water supply for agriculture. Both water scarcity and excessive moisture impact the normal growth of crops, reduce yields and increase the incidence of diseases. To address these daunting challenges, the agricultural sector needs to utilize advanced technologies and scientific knowledge to enhance the adaptability and resistance of the agricultural systems. This will enable more effective responses to the challenges posed by climate change and ensure the stability of food supply.
2. Concepts and technologies of smart agriculture
The core concept of smart agriculture is to make agricultural decisions based on comprehensive, real-time data collection and analysis and use of precise data. At the same time, it employs automation technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence to achieve automation in agricultural processes. Furthermore, smart agriculture fully utilizes various sensing technologies, such as GPS and remote sensors, to subdivide farmland into different zones for differentiated management, in order to enhance the efficacy of resource utilization. Many measures of smart agriculture are in place to pursue the sustainable development of agriculture.
Firstly, it aims to improve resource utilization efficiency and achieve energy and water conservation by reducing excessive use of resources. Secondly, it cuts down the use of chemicals and promotes organic agriculture and eco-friendly farming methods to mitigate the environmental burden. Lastly, it optimizes soil management to ensure soil fertility and structure, so as to boost crop yields and quality. Smart agriculture not only strives to enhance agricultural production efficiency but also focuses on sustainable agricultural development. Through the deployment of technologies, smart agriculture seeks to increase agricultural production value, as well as to preserve and improve the ecological environment and achieve sustainable agricultural development.
As global greenhouse effects intensify and climate change progresses, the challenges facing agricultural development are deepening. In this context, strategic employment of smart and net-zero technologies has become an important means to ensure stable food production. The introduction of these technologies to connect the upstream and downstream of supply chains will help improve the efficiency and reliability of agricultural production and hence address the challenges brought by climate change.
Precision production technology can provide bespoke management based on soil conditions, weather, and crop growth, so as to maximize yields and reduce waste. Meanwhile, intelligent technologies for risk management and loss warning models can promptly identify potential disaster risks and take preemptive measures to mitigate losses.
3. New directions for agriculture in Taiwan
Agricultural development in Taiwan is confronted with numerous difficulties and urgencies due to limited and fragmented land, dense population, aging agricultural workforce, and lack of young workers, as well as the normalization of extreme weather events. Therefore, the launch of smart technologies for agriculture can strengthen the linkage of upstream and downstream across the supply chain, stabilize food production, and even innovate production and sales models and create production values exceeding those achieved with traditional agriculture. This will assist smart farming, boost capacities, cultivate a foundation for sustainable development. Indeed, it is a vital issue to consider for the future of agricultural transformation.
In addition to the integration of technology and agriculture, extreme climate change is another important issue facing the agricultural industry. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) urges the world to acknowledge the threat of global warming, take proactive climate actions and promote smart agriculture with the potential for greenhouse gas reduction. For example, the use of Internet of Things (IoT) technology can increase agricultural production. The incorporation of climate adaptation concepts and the enhancement of the agricultural system’s resilience not only improve the agricultural adaptation capabilities and sustainability to safeguard food security, but also strengthen the competitiveness of agricultural enterprises and gain more market opportunities.
The uniqueness of agriculture leads to the complexity of technology applications. Compared to other industries, agriculture is more constrained by natural factors such as weather and geographical conditions and hence, the adoption of technology is even more challenging due to the greater requirement for customized and personalized solutions. The journey of problem solving has sparked countless business opportunities and trends. This may include the deployment of IoT technology at the production end to achieve precise irrigation, temperature monitoring, and pest/disease prevention in farmlands and thereby to improve production efficiency. It may also be innovations in life sciences or breakthroughs in big data and AI for overall process optimization.
4. Conclusion
The agricultural development in Taiwan over past few decades has cultivated many hidden champions and outstanding talents. However, the industry often struggles to reach its full potential due to a lack of well-developed business models and systematic planning. The promotion of smart agriculture faces similar challenges. Therefore, it is suggested that collective efforts in the future should come from the government, agricultural enterprises, technology institutions, and farmers. The application of smart agriculture technology can help farmers to manage soil scientifically, use water resources reasonably, and reduce pesticide use and hence establish green and environmentally friendly production methods. This also encourages the industry to continue to use digital technologies for innovation, higher agricultural production efficiency and lower costs.
Another focus going forward will be the utilization of the resources from the industry, the government, academia, and research institutions to guide the establishment of new business models. A case in point is better integration of agricultural product production, processing, distribution, and sales. Another example is the leverage of Taiwan's technological advantages to combine online and offline channels, as well as physical and virtual marketing models. The supply chain from farm to table and the production driven by sales will boost the farmers' incomes, ensure the quality and safety of agricultural products, and meet the consumers' demand for high-quality food.