Despite the persevering adverse environmental conditions, the Middle Eastern governing bodies are making continual efforts to mitigate the vulnerability of their agriculture industry. As we enter the fourth industrial revolution across all the other industrial sectors, we see the agricultural industry in the Middle East also embracing a move toward technological transformation. In the coming years, the demand for food is likely to nearly double. Food security will, in turn, emerge as a prominent challenge for stakeholders in the Middle East’s agriculture industry. Agricultural technology will enable farming companies to fortify their businesses using up-to-the-minute, high-tech features of farm management systems through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), similar to FarmERP.
The Middle Eastern space of agriculture has always been grappling with the challenges which are usually triggered by a constant increase in food demand and decreasing availability of water and other natural resources. Despite advancements in farming methods, agriculture production is likely to witness sluggish growth at about 1.5% per annum, as predicted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Nearly 65% of the cropland in the region is planted with grains and cereals that are exceedingly water-thirsty cereals, especially wheat. These cereals mainly hold a large share of calorie intake among consumers. Furthermore, according to a report published by the FAO, shortly the Middle East is expected to witness a dramatic rise in consumption of these cereals and sugar, along with a slight decline in protein intake which is sourced from animals.
This remains the ground reality in the Middle East’s agricultural landscape, where farming companies are struggling to deal with roadblocks in the future of food security. In recent years, leading farming companies have begun combining their advanced farming strategies with their efforts of integrating tech-driven tools to amplify their productivity.
A few concrete steps being taken are elaborated in the pointers below:
- Implementing Precision Farming without Large and Expensive Machinery-
Farming companies in the region are turning down the use of bulky and expensive agricultural machinery while limiting their dependence on high-cost assets. The convergence of technologies with the agriculture industry is expected to empower stakeholders to implement precision farming in the region. In the coming years, the adoption of next-generation farm management systems is poised to emerge as a popular trend in the Middle East’s agriculture industry and a key for stakeholders to enhance their business profitability.
- Powering Digital Agriculture through Remote Monitoring Technology-
In the Middle East, the number of stakeholders investing in remote farms is multiplying at a rapid pace, attributing to the aggravating scarcity of natural resources in the region. A mounting number of such companies are also investing heavily in IoT-enabled farm management systems to improve their business profitability through advanced remote monitoring technology. This can also enable them to ensure a substantial increase in produce and a balance between supply and demand in the region’s agriculture industry.
- Ensuring Efficient Water Usage through Next-generation Farm Management Systems-
Nearly 70% of the gross domestic product of the Middle East and North America is affected by high or very high water stress in the region. Thereby, agribusinesses in the region are concentrating all their efforts on mitigating their dependency on rough estimates on soil humidity levels. With the use of advanced farm management systems, farmers and other stakeholders are leveraging smart sensing technologies to control their water consumption. This is expected to result in achieving more accuracy and efficiency in terms of water usage while eliminating water wastage for the use of agricultural reasons in the region.
Using these proven methods are moving the Middle-East increasingly toward next-gen Smart Platforms for use in their Agribusinesses.
Sanjay Borkar
Founder
FarmERP
