Digitalization of agriculture may be a solution to feed a huge growing population in the future. Application of big data is a key tool to digitalize the agriculture sector. Though there is a long debate on its applicability to agriculture, this study aims to address how big data technology contribute to digital agriculture in terms of sustainable farm management. The study uses an extensive review of current research work and studies in agriculture for exploring the best and compatible practices which can help farmers at field level for increasing production and improving quality. This study reveals several available big data technologies and practices in agriculture for solving the current problems and future challenges at the field level. The study reveals that application of big data technologies in agriculture is growing but still at low level. It also explores that there are a few technologies used for crop production, plant protection, livestock production, fisheries, post-harvest management and market development. The study finds out some challenges such as privacy of data, data availability, quality and openness, financial investment, lack of expertise and context specific technology. The study recommends that a large-scale adoption of agricultural big data technologies require government initiatives, a public-private partnership, the openness of data, financial investment and regional basis research work.
Background: Up to now, efforts to help local communities out of the food-insecurity trap were guided by researcher (or other actors)-led decisions on technologies to be implemented by the communities. This approach has proved inefficient because of low adoption of...
Agricultural innovation in low-income tropical countries contributes to a more effective and sustainable use of natural resources and reduces hunger and poverty through economic development in rural areas. Yet, despite numerous recent public and private initiatives to develop capacities for...
Multi-stakeholder partnerships network which is typified by the FARA-led Integrated Agriculture Research for Development (IAR4D) of the SSA-Challenge Program is an innovation platform (IP) composed of stakeholders bound together by their individual interests in a shared commodity or outcome. The...
There is an ongoing debate on what constitutes sustainable intensification of agriculture (SIA). In this paper, we propose that a paradigm for sustainable intensification can be defined and translated into an operational framework for agricultural development. We argue that this...
Grown in Jamaica since the days of slavery, food yams are major staples in local diets and a significant non-traditional export crop. The cultivation system used today is the same as 300 years ago, with alleged unsustainable practices. A new...