The Potentials of 4IR Should Utilize in Agriculture

Agriculture and industry are tied up and both are complementary to each other. The fourth industrial revolution is advanced digital technology, it focuses on an opportunity that could change the environment in the way humans think and work. The farms and factories must implement smart technology to move very fast and it should be an innovative application to embrace the fourth industrial revolution robustly for Bangladesh.

Three industrial revolutions have changed the course of the world in the history of human civilization. The first industrial revolution took place with the invention of the steam engine. Then the invention of electricity and the internet increased the speed of the industrial revolution several times.

However, the fourth industrial revolution started at present has surpassed the previous three revolutions. With this, there is a fight going on all over the world now. The way experts say, so far, our way of life, our work, our way of thinking has started to change. Now we are going through a technological change. The digital revolution, which began based on the Second and Third Industrial Revolutions, is changing everything at a mathematical rate, which has never happened before.

Most importantly, this change is affecting every sector of every country in the world, which is changing the production process, management everything. Things like the transformation of the information technology sector around the world through smartphones, the Internet of Things, the application of artificial intelligence in equipment management, robotics, biotechnology, quantum computing have started the 4 IR.

AI and IoT are now being added to the world's newest agricultural machinery. We are noticing the most advanced agricultural machinery in the world. As can be seen, robotics technology is now being introduced in most agricultural machinery. One wonders how much human labor can be reduced in the manufacturing sector. At the same time, modern information technology is being used effectively to facilitate production efficiency, conversion efficiency, and marketing. The biggest success in the agricultural mechanization of Bangladesh has come from inland cultivation.

Now the digger, threshing machines and power pumps are being used for agriculture widely. Mechanization in other areas of agriculture is slow. 1.5 percent in harvest and less than 0.5 percent in planting. However, the rate of use of agricultural machinery is increasing day by day. As a result, crop production has increased at a significant rate.

 Similarly, the agricultural machinery manufacturers of our country are continuing their efforts to combine the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence with manufactured machinery. Apart from imports, domestic manufacturers are also meeting 20 percent of the demand for agricultural machinery in Bangladesh.

In recent times, various organizations in the country have started various activities to follow the purity in agricultural production. Together with various governmental and non-governmental organizations including the Department of Agricultural Extension, it has developed non-toxic vegetable crop production and middleman-free market structure in different districts of the country. Village Super Market, a multi-purpose market, has jumped up in the south. The farmer is selling their vegetables at a specific outlet in the village. Initiatives are being taken to supply agricultural products to the capital market by cleaning, sorting and improving packaging.

Vegetables have already been marketed in this process. An important aspect of these initiatives is to ensure safe crop production and supply chain. In the same process, purity has been adopted in the production of fish, meat, and milk and a secure market system have been established. Through this, the farmers are coming under the practice of producing safe crops.

We have a promising innovative success for the fisheries sector. The technology of controlling ammonia in fish farming ponds and giving moderate food to the fish. The success of our fisheries sector has been marked by the welfare of the young entrepreneurs and farmers of our country.

Modern technologies like 're-circulated aquaculture system' and 'bio-flock fish farming' have been added to fish farming as well as upward expansion in crop cultivation or soilless home farming method. In addition to these two methods, there has been a huge response among young entrepreneurs to control the level of ammonia in the water and reduce the cost of farming to produce much more fish on a small scale.

A large number of educated conscious entrepreneurs in Bangladesh have joined the modern farming activities to quickly advance our global position in fish farming.We need to motivate and accustom the farmer to the best practices of agriculture at all levels. In this case, the latest innovation of technology, the use of IoT and artificial intelligence are also important.

 In the era of the 4IR, increasing productivity, multi-faceted success in the commercialization of agriculture, but there is a big challenge in agriculture. That is the optimal market structure of the productive class. In the age of ongoing smart technology, it has not been possible to build a platform to provide an effective solution to the market structure for the farmer.

With the development of technology and knowledge-science, human thought-consciousness is developing. Our success in the production of all food grains, vegetables, fruits including rice, fish, meat, eggs, and milk is exemplary. Overcoming many adversities, the farmer has achieved today's production success. Farmers' initiatives are being hailed as a promising success in commercial agriculture.

Agriculture has now become a more investment-oriented commercial enterprise. New information technology is being added in place of more profit and productivity. Bangladesh's progress in developing agricultural technology in tandem with the developed world is astonishing. If the picture of the last decade is presented, the entrepreneurial farmers of Bangladesh have focused on the agricultural practices that we have brought from the developed countries of the world. Needless to say, the effects of the 4IR have begun to be fully felt in the agriculture of our country.

The fourth industrial revolution builds a smart farming technology that brings advanced and sustainable changes for both production and agro-processing. The fourth industrial revolution extends farms production and also increase their value. This paper reviewed the past effects of the industrial revolution, discussed expanded benefits into smart farming, and predicted impacts of the fourth industrial revolution in Bangladesh agriculture.

The use of machinery must be ensured at all levels of agriculture. Besides, the planting of improved high-yielding varieties of crops should be increased. There is a huge contribution of agronomists who are behind our success in agriculture. They have shown other achievements in research and innovation. Scientists have invented many grain varieties.

 Technologists have invented appropriate technology. Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute has developed 545 high-yielding varieties of crops and 505 crop production technologies. Bangladesh Rice Research Institute has developed 6 inbred and 88 hybrid rice varieties. And Bangladesh Atomic Agriculture Research Institute has developed 108 high-yielding varieties of 18 important crops.

The company has also developed bacterial fertilizers. Bangladesh is at the forefront of the flood, drought salinity and disaster-tolerant crop innovation in the world. This success of continuous research and innovation by agronomists and indicates a bright future for the growth of agricultural production. Agronomists have not only developed advanced and necessary technologies for different crops, but also varieties and technologies in other fields including animal husbandry and fisheries. Their success awaits proper evaluation and appropriate incentives.

The fourth industrial revolution concept combines artificial intelligence and big data that have achieved significant attention and popularity in precision farming like in monitoring, diagnosing insect pests, measuring soil moisture, diagnosing harvest time and monitoring crop health status, and reducing complicated monitoring by a human.

The industry that extends precision agriculture using artificial intelligence with robotic technology in the fourth industrial revolution and its application is embedding into the smart observation that retrieves real-time information from field level data with minor human interference.

If necessary, this subsidy should be increased further. Remember, the shortage of agricultural workers is increasing day by day. Now 47 percent of the workforce is engaged in agriculture. By 2030, it will come down to 20 percent. Therefore, the necessity of using advanced technology or machinery in agriculture is easily conceivable. Agriculture should be made easy and profitable in the national interest.


Hiren Pandit is Research
Fellow, BNNRC