Can agri-tech meet zero hunger?

The world has entered into the era of digitalization. It has developed and progressed in multiple ways. However, even today, we globally face some teething troubles in the form of hunger, malnutrition, food security, and so on.

India was placed at 94th rank among 107 countries in 2020 and at 101st rank among 116 nations in 2021 at the Global Hunger Index ranking. These statistics flag areas of concern. The fall in the ranking has been cast off by some that there has been a worsening of hunger in the country.

Given India’s economic and social diversity, the nation’s performance in dealing with issues like Hunger and Malnutrition closely depends on the performance of its states. Some of the poorest states might have the highest number of people living in them and with that count, the demand and supply fail.

SDG or Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations were created to make the world hunger-free. This initiative was taken in 2015; however, until 2019, the situation remained unchanged. As per a UN report, one in every nine people was still struggling with access to a basic meal.

To fight this complication, it is necessary to target its root. It’s not the population alone responsible for global hunger issues; it is also the management put into it.

Agriculture has been one of the most contributing sectors in India in terms of its economy and employment. The infusion of technology in agriculture motivated the agri-stakeholders and farmers to carry their operations efficiently. Still, technology has also enabled the agriculture industry to work on a sustainable note.

Agri-tech or agri-technology enhances production and productivity, lowering operating costs facilitating market access, information, credit, and capacity building. This further serves as an effective solution to Global Hunger.

Several agri-tech organizations are working on four strong pillars of traceability, climate resilience, food safety, and sustainability for making farming predictable and profitable. Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Blockchain, and Deep Learning enhance farmers' and agribusinesses' daily agronomic processes, helping bring a sense of streamlining throughout the entire agri-value chain.

It is crucial to understand the complexity of Global Hunger. Global Hunger is more than a balance kept between demand and supply. The inefficiency of storage, distribution sector, management all play an equally important role in Global Hunger.

Even if a large quantity of food is produced at a farm, not all reaches the end consumer. This is where agri-technology offers solutions. The Geographical Information Systems in agri-tech software ensure that the product is maximized for the entire process to give outputs at full capacity.

Agri-Technology offers systems that can help ensure proper storage, produce transmission, and account for market sales. Agri-technology platforms provide a single sign-in service to agri-stakeholders, farmers, and enterprises for easy operations, which further helps prevent errors and minimize loss of productivity.

Along with being the future of agriculture, agri-technology is also an efficient solution to Zero Hunger. With innovative and advanced offerings, these technologies can help agri-businesses capitalize on many benefits of agri-technology while ensuring a sustainable usage of resources and maximum output to acquire Zero Hunger soon.

Author - Sanjay Borkar & Santosh Shinde of FarmERP