The global population is growing. According to a new UN DESA report the current world population of 7.3 billion is expected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100. This will lead to increased demand for food. Furthermore, the agriculture sector also needs to face the challenges of shortage of natural resources like water, climate changes, and the rising cost of raw materials and labor. Along with that, the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the challenges of the agri-input supply chain. In the current state, digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), remote sensing, blockchain, and big data have the potential to pave the way for agriculture businesses to overcome such challenges and revolutionize the sector positively in the following ways.
● Better productivity with data management solutions and automation tools
● Improved agronomic practices to yield better outputs
● Virtual integration of Agri and farm inputs, commodity traders, financial services
● Actionable insights to empower informed decision-making
● Efficient policy-making and implementation
The digital revolution in agri-input and agribusiness supply chain management can transform the industry in many ways. Learn how digital transformation in supply chain management improves business performance.
How can digital technologies transform the agri-input or agribusiness supply chain?
Here is how digital technologies can transform the agri-input or agribusiness sector and enable businesses to face the current challenges.
1. Agricultural efficiency
There are many business discrepancies in the agriculture industry. For example, supermarkets faced inventory stockouts, and farmers destroyed the overproduced food during the COVID-19 crisis. This happened due to a lack of resilience and inefficiencies in agricultural supply chain management. The following technologies can help manage the discrepancies and improve business performance
Digital technologies:
● Artificial intelligence (AI): According to Statista, the global agricultural robotics market is expected to reach $21 billion by 2050. Intelligent farming bots are used to improve harvesting efficiency. It can significantly reduce labor costs and wastage while increasing operational speed.
● IoT in irrigation: The soil and weather sensors can detect the moisture requirement and supply suitable water to the crops. It can significantly increase operational efficiency and also reduce the consumption of water.
● Drones for fields: Drones can monitor farms and are a cheaper alternative to an aerial helicopter. It can monitor the soil conditions and damage in the fields, which helps in making informed and timely decisions.
● Livestock management: IoT sensors can monitor the humidity and temperature levels of the farm to maintain the proper livestock health. The livestock feed can also feed and send the nutritional information directly to farmers’ mobile devices.
2. Agricultural resilience
As the pandemic and climate conditions have created a volatile and uncertain environment in the agri-input supply chains, digital technologies can help reduce the uncertainty levels while accelerating resiliency.
Digital Technologies:
● Data processing: The historical data and harvesting patterns can be fetched and analyzed to make better decisions in the future.
● Cloud solutions: They provide agility and a strong processing power to use farm management systems and share real-time data across the agri-input supply chain.
● Big data analytics: It helps analyze the massive amount of data like weather changes, inventory levels, and consumer demand to manage the supply and demand side of the agricultural supply chain.
● E-commerce platform: It helps in bridging the gap between retailers and farmers. The farmers can leverage digital technologies to get up-to-date pricing information and control the overall supply chain process in a better manner.
3.Agricultural sustainability
The agriculture sector is one of the most significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Digital technologies can help improve sustainability across the supply chain management of the agriculture business.
Digital technologies:
● Advanced telemetry systems: Leverage GPS to provide real-time information on fuel usage, asset management, upcoming maintenance, and idle time that helps in making sustainable decisions.
● Blockchain for agricultural transparency: Unaltered information related to carbon emissions and ethical practices can be accessed across the agri-input supply chain to improve agricultural sustainability.
● Smart cattle farms: IoT-enabled sensors can monitor the greenhouse gasses within the farm. It utilizes advanced analytics to provide carbon emission insights and reports.
Accelerate digital transformation for your agri-input or agribusiness
With the increasing convergence of agriculture and technology, now is time to leverage the technological advancements for your business. Indicatively, the use of robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of things (IoT), and precision farming help increase production, optimize the utilization of resources, and reduce waste while ensuring the traceability and quality of food. Get in touch with us to increase operational efficiency, maximize productivity, design the agri-input supply chain, and modernize your agriculture business.