Proliferation of IR4.0 Technologies in Large-Scale Agriculture

摘要

Innovations and emerging technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4.0) can provide significant revenue potential, cost savings and far more efficient yields in large-scale farming. The adoption and utilisation of precision agriculture applications with proper integration and management is vital to maximise return on investments while also offering opportunities to diversify production capacity. The incorporation of IR4.0 technology, be it through capture of real-time soil and climate data and analytics, utilisation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) related to crops management, automation through agriculture robots, sensors and internet of things with the aim of maximising outputs and production are key enablers that are expected to transform agriculture. However, the actual proliferation and exploitation has not been as robust as expected mainly due to the challenges related an ageing farmer demography, selecting and deploying the right technologies, including the data acquisition. While incentives and support from specific stakeholders, including especially the government continue to be provided in a large scale, there seems to be a lag in adoption. In this chapter, we review reasons for the lag, common IR4.0 technology applications and its benefits as well as gaps in innovation that curtail progress. We discuss incentives and structures and focus on some of the benefits of these incentives and their targeted approach. The chapter carries key recommendations focussed on infusing greater traction for adoption of the IR4.0 technologies to enable competitiveness and efficient productivity.