The World Government Summit recently came out with an agenda to improve agricultural technologies by integrating farming with industry 4.0. The outcome would be a fourth agricultural revolution or Agriculture 4.0

1. AGRICULTURE - 4.0:
THE FUTURE OF
FARMING
TECHNOLOGY
-Dishant James
PALB 7025
II Ph.D.
Dept. of Agri.
Extension
UAS(B)

2. Objectives:
1. To understand the concepts of Industry 4.0 and Agriculture
4.0.
2. To know about the different trends and technologies under
Agriculture 4.0.
3. To discuss the role of extension and municipal organisations
in fostering Agriculture 4.0.

3. World Government Summit
• An annual event held in Dubai, UAE. It’s an NGO founded in 2013.
• It brings together leaders in government for a global dialogue
about governmental process and policies with a focus on the
issues of futurism, technology and innovation.
• It functions as a thought leadership platform and networking hub
for policymakers, experts and pioneers in human development.
• Each year, the Summit sets the agenda for the next generation of
governments with a focus on how they can harness innovation
and technology to solve universal challenges facing humanity.

4. Industry 4.0

5. CPS v/s IoT
• CPS is a broader concept than the IoT System.
• It has "tighter" interactions (having sensing as
well as control and actuating functionalities
implicitly closer to real-time interactions) with
the physical processes/world, than IoT.
• IoT in most cases is viewed as a data-centric
internet-based system with more relaxed timing
requirements.
 The first 4.0 project (“Fabbrica 4.0”) in Italy was launched by
Confindustria (the largest national association of industries) in
2014.
 The aim was to promote better information on possibilities that
digitalization can offer to current industries.

6. Agricultural revolutions
 Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793  Automation of separating cottonseed
from the cotton fibre.
 Along with other inventions like the spinning jenny, it revolutionized the factory-
based textile industry and boosted cotton farming.

7.  Advances such as telephones, light
bulbs, diesel engines, airplanes, the
Model T and the introduction of
assembly lines.
 Improvement in transportation,
especially the expansion of
railways, helped move crops,
livestock and farming machinery,
expanding markets and making
farms more efficient.

8. • The third industrial revolution, also
called the digital revolution, saw
technology advancing from mechanical
and analog to digital.
• Agricultural technology experienced
many advances. Farmers started using
HYVs, insect- and weed-resistant crops,
effective fertilizers and pesticides.
• Satellite technology and biotechnology
enabled farmers to increase their
produce as well as record and analyse
their production.
Agriculture during the third industrial revolution

9. Agriculture during the fourth industrial revolution
• Agriculture 4.0, like Industry 4.0,
stands for the combined internal and
external interaction of farming
operations, offering digital information
at all farm sectors and processes.
• Factories will become smarter, more
efficient, safer, and more
environmentally sustainable, due to
the combination and integration of
production technologies and devices,
information and communication
systems, data and services in network
infrastructure.
• A Smart Farm must be able to adapt
autonomously and in real-time to
these changes in order to remain
competitive on the market.

10. Challenges faced by agricultural industry
1. AN ELEVATED INCREASE IN DEMOGRAPHICS WILL BOOST DEMAND
FOR FOOD

11. 2. CURRENT USES OF NATURAL RESOURCES ARE HIGHLY STRESSED

12. 3. CLIMATE CHANGE IS REDUCING PRODUCTIVITY IN AGRICULTURE

13. 4. FOOD WASTE- A MASSIVE MARKET INEFFICIENCY AND
ENVIRONMENTAL THREAT
• 800 million people go to bed hungry every night.
• Each and every one of them could be fed on less than a quarter of
the food that is wasted in the US, UK, and Europe each year.

14. OUTCOME

15. Four tiers of generic farm
architecture

16. AGRICULTURE 4.0: DISRUPTING THE SYSTEM IS
DOABLE WITH NEW TECHNOLOGIES
• Three general trends where technology is disrupting
the agricultural industry:
1. Produce differently using new techniques
2. Use new technologies to bring food production to
consumers, increasing efficiencies in the food chain
3. Incorporate cross-industry technologies and
applications
Agriculture 4.0, the coming agricultural revolution, would be a green
one, with science and technology at its heart

18. i) HYDROPONICS
• The method of growing plants without soil, using mineral nutrient
solutions in a water solvent.
A conventional greenhouse uses
groundwater for irrigation, gas for
heating, and electricity for cooling.
A Sundrop greenhouse (Australia)
turns seawater and sunlight into
energy and water.
Sustainably sourced carbon
dioxide and nutrients are used to
maximise the growth of crops.

19. ii) ALGAE FEEDSTOCK
• Only a small percentage of global fish
production is actually channeled towards
human consumption, with the rest used for fish
feed and animal feed.
• Algae-based feedstock is an effective and
inexpensive substitute for feedstock and
fishmeal.
• Algae can produce between 7,500 and 19,000
litres of fuel per acre/year, far more than any
other renewable feedstock. (Chlorella,
Botryococcus)  hydrothermal liquefaction.
• They can be grown on brackish or polluted
water.
• India is a growing market for micro algae such
as Spirulina, which is now given as a
pharmaceutical product. (Ex: SPRTC, Madurai)

20. iii) SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING:
BIOPLASTICS
• 100 million tons of debris drifting in the
oceans.
• Much of it - disposable plastic food
packaging containers and bags.
How to manufacture PLA bioplastics:
•Process corn kernels and mill them to
extract the dextrose from their starch.
•Use fermenting vats to turn the
dextrose into lactic acid.
•In a chemical plant, convert the lactic
acid into lactide.
•Polymerize the lactide to make long-
chain molecules of polylactide acid
(PLA)
The cornstarch molecules they contain slowly absorb water and swell up, causing them to break apart into small
fragments that bacteria can digest more readily.

21. iv) DESERT AGRICULTURE
• The ‘King Abdullah University for
Science and Technology’ (KAUST) in
Saudi Arabia is at the forefront of
research on desert agriculture.
• Genome engineering technologies
to manipulate biological systems
and plant growth and development;
• Growth regulators that improve
plants response to adverse
conditions; and
• Plant hormones that shape shoot
and root architecture according to
nutrient availability.
“Valley of the Moon” or Wadi Rum Organic Farms, Jordan

22. v) 3D OCEAN FARMING
Unlike land-based crops, seaweed is a “zero-
input food” — it requires no additional fresh
water, fertilizer, pesticides, feed or soil to grow.
Packed with protein, vitamin C and calcium,
seaweed is a nutritious addition to human
diets.
The nonprofit organization GreenWave trains
new seaweed farmers and provides them with
two years of support.
With about $30,000, a boat and a lease (which requires
approvals from state regulators and the US Army Corps of
Engineers) to farm 20 acres of near-shore seafloor,
anyone can start a 3D ocean farm that produces 10 to 30
tons of kelp and 250,000 shellfish per acre in five months.

23. i) URBANFARMING
The growing of plants and the raising of animals
within and around cities.
Types of actors involved:
• Urban poor, richer people who are seeking a good
investment for their capital, women who are home-makers.
Types of location:
• Inside the cities (intra-urban) or in peri-urban areas
• On homestead (on-plot) or on land away from the residence (off-plot),
• On private land (owned, leased) or on public land (parks, conservation
areas, along roads, streams and railways),
• Or semi-public land (schoolyards, grounds of schools and hospitals).

24. Types of products grown:
Crops (root crops, vegetables, mushrooms, fruits)
Animals (poultry, rabbits, goats, sheep, fish)
Non-food products (aromatic and medicinal herbs,
ornamental plants, tree products)
Also Inputs (e.g. compost) and services delivery
(e.g. animal health services) by specialised micro-
enterprises or NGOs
Product destination / degree of market orientation:
Self consumption
Local shops
Local farmer markets
Restaurants
Intermediaries
Supermarkets

25. VERTICALFARMING
Vertical farming is the urban farming of fruits, vegetables, and grains,
inside a building in a city or urban centre, in which floors are designed to
accommodate certain crops.
Spiral Garden system Pyramidal Farm

26. 2) GENETICMODIFICATION
• Clustered, regularly interspaced, short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) technology 
Important new approach to genome editing that allows greater selectivity and
reduces the element of chance.

27. 3) CULTUREDMEATS
• Cutting-edge technology that has a lot of potential but is still in a fragile
state of development.

28. 4) APPLYING3D PRINTING TECHNOLOGYTO FOOD
• 3D printed food is a way of preparing a
meal in an automated additive manner.
Grocery stores of the future may stock
“food cartridges”
Pros of 3D Printed Food:
Enable us to reinvent our culinary ways:
texture, shape and artistic vision.
New ways of preparing a meal in space.
Helpful for senior citizens with tooth
ailments and gastronomic problems

29. Professional food 3D printers Consumer desktop food 3D printers

31. 1) Digital Twin
• Digital Twin is the virtual
representation of the elements
and the dynamics of a process,
device or service.
• Digital Twin is like an artificial
mind that substitutes human
decision making with super
informed decisions based upon
historical data, smart analytics,
live environmental factors

32. 2) Cobots
• A cobot or co-robot (from
collaborative robot) is a robot
intended to physically interact with
humans in a shared workspace.
• This is in contrast with other robots,
designed to operate autonomously or
with limited guidance
• Collaborative industrial robots are
highly complex machines which are
able to work hand in hand with
human beings. The robots support
and relieve the human operator in a
conjoint work flow.

33. 3)BLOCKCHAIN AND SECURING THE AGRICULTURE VALUE CHAIN
• The blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can
be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything
of value.” – Don & Alex Tapscott, authors of Blockchain Revolution (2016).

34. Traceability of agri-products using blockchain technology
* LBA= Logical Block Addressing, GRN=Goods Received Note, FGN= Finished Goods Note

35. • By improving traceability in supply chains,
it can enable regulators to quickly identify
the source of contaminated foods and
determine the scope of affected products
during contamination incidents.
• Additionally, the technology can reduce
waste by detecting bottlenecks in the
supply chain contributing to food spoilage.
• Blockchain technologies can prevent price
extortion and delayed payments while
simultaneously eliminating middlemen and
lowering transaction fees, leading to fairer
pricing and helping smallholder farmers
capture a larger part of their crop value.

36. 4)NANOTECHNOLOGY

37. 5) FOOD SHARING AND CROWDFARMING
• Olio, founded by social entrepreneurs, has built
an app connecting people with their neighbors
and local shops so that surplus food can be
shared, rather than be discarded.
• Situated on the periphery of Bengaluru city,
Farmizen manages five farms of 10.5 acres,
divided into mini farms of 600 sq ft each.
• By paying Rs 2500 as a monthly subscription fee
that includes the monthly rent to the farmers,
the individuals can grow vegetables of their
choice as per the season in the twelve beds
allocated to them in their mini farm. They control
the farm through an app and can visit the farm
anytime and harvest their own chemical-free
produce

38. THE ROLE OF EXTENSION ORGANISATIONS
FOLLOW A TARGETED GOAL-ORIENTED APPROACH
• Channellize the existing capabilities
To create programs that work, don’t start from
scratch. Give direction, ambition, and urgency
to initiatives in place.
• Partner with other agricultural organizations
Although NASA had a team of some of the best
engineers in the world, 12,000 corporations
were involved in making the moon project
happen. Get the best possible expertise from
outside to add to your own.
• Hire business development staff with knowledge
on data science (UpGrad)

39. • Explore cross-industry opportunities to
invest in and create new solutions by
merging them with agricultural activity
(similar to 3D printing entering the food
industry)
• Urban farmers and NGOs supporting
them, have to be involved in the
planning process
• Provision of training and extension
services to urban producers. Emphasis
on ecological farming practices, farm
development (intensification and
diversification),enterprise management
and marketing.
• Technical advice, Urban FIGs

40. Municipal strategies for the Development of
Safe and Sustainable Agriculture 4.0
1) Creating a conducive policy environment
 Formal acceptance of urban agriculture as an
urban land use.
 In Lima, Peru an urban agriculture sub-
department has been created under the
Department of Economic Development.
 In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, an Interdepartmental
Committee on Urban Agriculture was created
to coordinate the activities of the various
Municipal departments active in this field
including the Departments of Town planning,
Health, Finance, and others.

41. 2) Enhancing access to vacant open
urban spaces
Making an inventory of the available vacant
open land within the city.
• Contrary to the common belief, even in highly urbanised
areas surprisingly high amounts of vacant land can be
found that could be used for agriculture on a temporary
or permanent basis. In the city of Chicago, researchers
identified 70,000 vacant lots.
Stimulating landowners to give vacant land in
longer term leases for agriculture
• Found in Accra (hospital grounds), Harare (golf club),
Santiago de Chile (school yards), Dar es Salaam
(university campus).
Promotion of multifunctional land use
• In Calcutta the maintenance of the wetlands, agriculture
and aquaculture are combined with wastewater
treatment and reuse.

42. 3) Enhancing access of urban
farmers to credit and finance
• Municipalities can stimulate (e.g. by
creating a guarantee fund) existing credit
institutions to establish special credit
schemes for urban producers or to allow
the participation of urban producers
• The inclusion of urban agriculture in the
municipal budget
4) Facilitate (direct-)marketing
• Authorize food box schemes and/or
support the establishment of “green
labels” for ecological grown and safe
urban food.

43. 5) Supporting micro-enterprise
development
• Suppliers of farm inputs (compost,
earthworms, open pollinated seeds and
plant materials, bio-pesticides).
• Processing enterprises (food
preservation, packaging, street
vending, transport).
• By provision of start-up licenses and
subsidies or tax reductions to micro-
and small entrepreneurs.