AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING:
A KEY DISCIPLINE ENABLING AGRICULTURE
TO DELIVER GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY
AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING:
A KEY DISCIPLINE ENABLING AGRICULTURE
TO DELIVER GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY
Prof. R.J. Rickson
Vice President, IAgrE, UK; Cranfield University, UK
Mr. M. Moore
AGCO, UK
Prof. S. Blackmore
Vice President, IAgrE, UK; Harper Adams University, UK
Prof. W. Day
Editor-in-Chief, Biosystems Engineering, UK
Prof. R. Godwin
Harper Adams University; Emeritus Professor, Cranfield
University, UK
Prof. M. Kibblewhite
President Elect, IAgrE; Agri-Technology Action Agta) Ltd
Prof. P. Miller
NIAB/TAG Group, UK
Mr. P. Redman
IAgrE, UK
AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING:
A KEY DISCIPLINE ENABLING AGRICULTURE
TO DELIVER GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY
Outline
3
•
Aims of the presentation
•
Issues to consider / Questions to answer
•
Background: the challenges we face
•
How agricultural engineering can meet these challenges
•
Recommendations and concluding remarks
LAND TECHNIK AG ENG 2013| 08/11/2013
AIMS OF THE PRESENTATION
To demonstrate how agricultural engineering can:
• deliver innovative, feasible, practical and sustainable
solutions that can address some of the key global
challenges of the 21st century
• have a prompt, major and lasting impact on food
production, without detrimental effects on the
environment or on the socio-economic status of farming
communities = ‘sustainable intensification’
4
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ISSUES TO CONSIDER / QUESTIONS TO ANSWER
How can agricultural engineers contribute to Europe’s high value agricultural
economy and to global food security?
How can we encourage and inspire young, multi-disciplinary agricultural engineers?
How can we challenge the traditional perceptions of agricultural engineering?
How can we get more understanding and recognition by Governments and others
of the critical role of Agricultural Engineering?
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THE CHALLENGES AHEAD
UK Government Chief Scientific Officer’s
Foresight Report:
‘The Future of Food and Farming:
Challenges and choices for global
sustainability’
The Foresight Report,
Chief Scientific Officer, UK Government
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THE CHALLENGES AHEAD
Population growth
- eight billion by 2030 and probably to over nine billion by 2050.
Food production (quantity, quality, reliability and changing diets)
- Global production must increase by 3% annually to 2030 (Watts, C. Agriculture in High
Growth Markets, Economist Intelligence Unit., London)
Food security (the 4 ‘As’)
- Appropriate, available, accessible and affordable
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THE CHALLENGES AHEAD
How to achieve increased food production given :
- Finite amount of land
1450000
Whole apple
1400000
Planet earth
3/4
Water
1/4
Land
1/8
Uninhabitable to humans
1/8
Habitable
1300000
3/32
1250000
1/32
Only suitable for non
arable land
Suitable for arable
1350000
1/32 peel
Topsoil
1200000
Global area of arable and permanent crops from 1961 to 2009
(thousands of hectares) (FAOSTAT)
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THE CHALLENGES AHEAD
How to achieve increased food production, given :
- Finite amount of land
- Conflicts / competition with other land uses
- biofuels, urban development, infrastructure
- Increasing competition for water supplies
- Limited (affordable) energy resources
- Decreasing labour supplies (urbanisation / rural depopulation)
- Degradation of land and water quality
- Climate change and weather variability
- Rising global temperatures and changing patterns of precipitation
“The Perfect Storm”
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THE CHALLENGES AHEAD
http://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2012/01/do-high-food-prices-cause-social-unrest/
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FIVE STEPS TOWARDS ACHIEVING GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY
1.
Balancing future demand and supply sustainably
2.
Ensuring adequate stability in food supplies
3.
Achieving global access to food and ending hunger
4.
Managing the food system to help mitigate climate
change
5.
Maintain biodiversity and ecosystem services
Agricultural engineering is uniquely placed to meet these challenges
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IAgrE, 2012. Agricultural Engineering: a key discipline enabling agriculture to deliver
global food security,
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Institution of Agricultural Engineers, Cranfield, Bedford, UK,
1. BALANCING FUTURE DEMAND AND SUPPLY SUSTAINABLY
• Increasing food supply (primary production):
• Quantity
• Quality
• Reliability
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1. BALANCING FUTURE DEMAND AND SUPPLY SUSTAINABLY
•
Better monitoring and measurement techniques to increase food supply
• Fields are not uniform in space and time
• Over- and under- management (tillage, agrochemicals, water)
• Sensing systems for soil quality and crop health
• Better information
ORGANIC
MATTER
• Use of telephony
• Better weather forecasting
BIOTA
WATER
• More efficient, variable input farming
NUTRIENTS
STRUCTURE
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1. BALANCING FUTURE DEMAND AND SUPPLY SUSTAINABLY
Small weed in groups for
patch spray control
Detecting and tracking broadleaf weeds in onion crop
Garford Robocrop
(Farmers Weekly)
Computer vision
systems for weed
control
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1. BALANCING FUTURE DEMAND AND SUPPLY SUSTAINABLY
55 tonnes
•
Better soil management
“If our focus remains primarily on how to attain top yields without investing in soil and water
conservation, then we will eventually file for agronomic bankruptcy”
Buffett, H. G., 2011, Preserving our Agricultural Capital, The Farm of the Future, ASABE
•
Better water management using precision irrigation and intelligent field
drainage
•
Better nutrient management to reduce inputs and polluting emissions
•
Improvements in animal welfare and health, and thus productivity
• e.g. robotic milking machines
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2. ENSURING ADEQUATE STABILITY
IN FOOD SUPPLIES
Increased productivity (Step 1) to buffer food stocks
Importance of post harvest technology to even out peaks and troughs
ICT monitoring for remote fault identification in storage facilities
Controlling waste (e.g. shelf life of produce, product quality as well as
quantity)
Supply chain logistics and diagnostics
Better information on weather forecasting and markets (gluts and scarcity)
Role of communications technology
Robotics to reduce reliance on ‘lumpiness’ of labour market
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3. ACHIEVING GLOBAL ACCESS TO FOOD AND ENDING HUNGER
Not just about producing enough (Step 1) or buffering stocks (Step 2)
– Produce food that is appropriate, available, accessible and affordable
80% of food grown in Africa and Asia comes from
smallholder and subsistence farmers
More emphasis on smaller machines and towed
implements for the smaller field sizes in Africa
and elsewhere
Alternatives to expensive agrochemicals
Brazilian animal-drawn
planter being evaluated by
farmers in Tanzania
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4. MANAGING THE FOOD SYSTEM TO HELP MITIGATE CLIMATE CHANGE
•
Agriculture’s heavy reliance on the fossil fuels that contribute to climate
change
• energy, fertilisers and pesticides
•
Energy management to reduce fossil fuel use
- on-farm energy production (Energy from Waste)
- vehicle efficiencies
- fuel consumption
Engineering microclimates
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4. MANAGING THE FOOD SYSTEM TO HELP MITIGATE CLIMATE CHANGE
Precision agriculture to reduce chemical fertiliser inputs and control
polluting emissions (GHG emissions)
Climate change adaptation
Irrigation management to combat droughts
Field drainage to combat extreme rainfall
Adaptive management – land use planning
Recycling nitrogen
Teagasc
Reduced tillage to combat GHG emissions from soil
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5. MAINTAIN BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES.
Precision agriculture for selective pesticide applications
Controlled traffic farming to minimise compaction  flooding control
Field engineering structures for soil erosion control
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….SO WHY IS AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING SO UNDERVALUED?
Traditional perceptions
Ag Eng seen as limited to mechanisation for primary production
Agricultural production  environment  agricultural production
Agricultural training and institutions neglected
Ag Eng is NOT just machines – see previous examples!
Multi- and trans-disciplinary: mechanisation, IT, computing, software
development, optics, robotics, control engineering, ergonomics, informatics,
ecological restoration, hydraulics, etc. etc.
Novel technologies and innovation
Systems understanding and optimisation (theme of this meeting)
Journal of Agricultural Engineering  Biosystems Engineering
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….SO WHY IS AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING SO UNDERVALUED?
Is this a new paradigm?!?
“Engineering for Agriculture”
Need to forge better links with other engineering sectors?
Mechanical, chemical, civil, medical, automotive, aeronautical, etc.
Applications in forestry, amenity and environment too
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RECOMMENDATIONS FROM
THE INSTITUTION OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERS REPORT
Recommendation 1: To fully recognise the contribution of engineering in meeting societal
challenges in global food security and contributing to economic growth
Recommendation 2: To develop the important opportunities for education, research and
training in engineering for agriculture.
Recommendation 3: To establish a research theme for ‘engineering for agriculture’ that
can compete on equal terms with other research communities and is appropriately
managed.
Recommendation 4: to encourage farming industry, agricultural engineering business,
innovators and educators to establish an appropriate focus for innovation
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CONCLUDING REMARKS
“Without change, the global food system will continue to degrade the environment and
compromise the world’s capacity to produce food…as well as contributing to climate change
and the destruction of biodiversity”
UK Government’s Foresight Report, 2011
“Future sustainable intensification will require a high level, precision farming approach, and
agricultural engineering will be pivotal to this achievement.”
Professor David Leaver, President, British Institute of Agricultural Consultants
“…we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of what this area of R&D can deliver for
our industry in the future.”
Peter Kendall, President UK National Farmers Union
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
LAND TECHNIK AG ENG 2013| 08/11/2013