Not many people have heard the term
“precision agriculture” before, understandably so; the concept is fairly new,
unfamiliar even to ultra-modern farms in our own country. However, this new
technology has important implications for the future of agriculture, the
environment and food security. If implemented in a mainstream way,
geostatistics and precision agriculture could make a huge impact on crop yield
and environmental sustainability worldwide.
Basically
the idea of precision agriculture involves using specialized tools to analyze
and record environmental data, such as soil composition, depth, alkalinity,
quality, rock content, et cetera. Sounds like a pretty basic idea right?
Precision agriculture takes it a step further to analyze the variations that
take place throughout an individual plot of land. Therefore, a farmer would be
better informed, year after year, as to which locations on his or her land best
suit which crops, as well as any soil modifications that might be necessary to
improve quality. All of this would serve to improve crop yield, which would aid
food security measures and individual farmers worldwide, as well as
environmental protection, which would encourage sustainable agriculture for
generations to come.
However,
the impact of this new technology (or application of technology) on countries
like Sierra Leone remains to be seen. Indubitably, the developing world tends
to be last to receive new technological advancements like these, and it’s likely
that at first it would only benefit a small amount of farmers. And while a
higher crop yield might also enable the U.S. to increase its food aid gifts to
countries like Sierra Leone, the benefit there is negligible, as it is of
course no guarantee that such a food surplus would in fact lead to additional
aid. Not to be underestimated, though, is the potential savings in
environmental impact – the continent of Africa boasts a wide gradient of
ecologically diverse environments, and as such tends to suffer the most from
the devastating effects of climate change.
Surely,
this new agricultural practice is an exciting development that could mean big
things for Sierra Leone’s farmers. However, it remains to be seen if that
technological leap forward will truly play out in the most advantageous ways to
the people, or if it will remain a tool only for use on wealthier, modernized
farms like those in the United States – ultimately not where it is most needed.
Marisa N | Volunteer Blogger
Khadarlis for Sierra Leone
marisa@khadarlis.org
