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Food and agriculture
Opinion
Vikas Pershad
Vikas Pershad

Opinion | Will Asia’s investors pounce on the farm tech revolution in the Year of the Tiger?

  • Farming and machine learning are coming together to feed a hungry world in agtech’s biggest revolution yet – and Asia is already home to many companies with the technology that is required

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An employee sets the route for an unmanned rice transplanter in a smart agriculture demonstration zone by Hongwei Farm Company of the Beidahuang Group, in northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, on May 11. Photo: Xinhua
Vikas Pershad

The world needs a bigger dining table. Between now and 2050, another 2 billion diners are coming, as the global population expands to 10 billion.

The arrival of new family members, friends and neighbours will coincide with a period of higher average temperatures, more frequent severe weather events and higher atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. The next few decades will also demand greater resourcefulness with our water and land while preserving our air quality.

These constraints will put ever greater burdens on the global food supply – most of all on the world’s farmers. But innovation is born of constraints. The world’s oldest job – securing food – has been evolving for centuries.

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With the aid of rapidly advancing technology, it’s about to enter its most revolutionary period: farming and machine learning, yin and yang, coming together to sustainably feed the world’s people.

Sixty years have passed since the last Year of the Water Tiger in 1962, when the world was in the throes of the Green Revolution. In the years since, increased mechanisation, large-scale irrigation and chemical fertilisation has led to a sharp increase in farm productivity.

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High-tech greenhouse boom in China after food shortages during Covid-19 lockdowns

High-tech greenhouse boom in China after food shortages during Covid-19 lockdowns

A similar feat must now be achieved, and in half the time. The US Farm Bureau estimates that the world’s farmers have to produce about 70 per cent more food by 2050 – less than 30 years from now.

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