Digital Agriculture (eBook)

The world population is increasing while arable land is decreasing at an alarming rate. About one-quarter of arable land is degraded and needs significant restoration before it can sustain crops again. By 2030, the water supply will fall 40% short of meeting global demand. Moreover, looming climate change poses additional challenge to increasing food production to feed 10 billion people by 2050. Current major agricultural systems are on a largely unsustainable trajectory because of their contributions to greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, and biodiversity loss.

For these reasons, innovative technologies are being introduced in modern agriculture to sustain food production.  They include digital and geospatial technologies to manage soil, climate and plant genetic resources. With the development of tools and sensors integrated into the internet of things (IoT) environment, physically collected information is converted into computer-readable language. Digital innovations thus allow real-time analysis, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) that manage massive amount of data, also known as big data. Accordingly, digital agriculture affords greater potential for sustainable farming and economic benefits.

This book summarizes the latest advances in AI-integration of agriculture practices. Specific focus includes but not limited to, big data, yield mapping, pests management, and optimal fertigation. As such, it presents a forward-looking approach to meet multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals, specifically, SDG 2, 6, 13 and 15.

P. M. Priyadarshan is a prominent Hevea rubber breeder. He began his research career by breeding triticale and wheat while doing M.Phil and PhD degrees at the Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut under the guidance of Prof. P.K. Gupta. During the 1980s he focused on the in vitro culture of spices. He joined the Rubber Research Institute of India (Rubber Board, Ministry of Commerce, Govt. of India) as a Plant Breeder in 1990 and specialized in breeding Hevea rubber for sub-optimal environments. He was a visiting scientist at the Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Centre, Purdue University, U.S.A. In 2009, he became the Institute's Deputy Director, and managed its Central Experiment Station until 2016.  He has been involved in breeding cereals, spices and Hevea rubber for 32 years. He is a reviewer of international journals, such as Industrial Crops & Products, Tree Genetics and Genomes etc. He has published many research papers in journals of international repute, such as Advances in Agronomy, Advances in Genetics, and Plant Breeding Reviews. He has edited/co-edited Breeding Plantation Tree Crops (Springer), Breeding Major Food Staples (Blackwell-Wiley), the Genomics of Tree Crops (Springer), and more recently, Cash Crops (Springer). 

Shri Mohan Jain received his Ph.D. in 1978 from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship in Israel, USA, and was a visiting scientist/professor in Japan, Malaysia, Germany, and Italy. He works in both academia and industry, and has served as a Technical Officer on Plant Breeding and Genetics at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Austria. Dr. Jain is on the editorial Board of Euphytica, In Vitro, Propagation of Ornamental Plants; reviewer in Plant cell and organ culture, Plant cell reports, and few others. He has published more than 165 peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and conference proceedings, and edited 65 books. He has also been a consultant for the European Union, The Government of Grenada, Iranian date palm Company and the Egyptian Government.   

Penna Suprasanna is the former Head of the Nuclear Agriculture & Biotechnology Division at Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, India

Jameel M. Al-Khayri is a Professor of Plant Biotechnology at the Department of Agricultural Biotechnology of King Faisal University (Saudi Arabia).