Microdosing, Precision Farming: Expertise to Yield Better Harvests
We must double food production in developing countries by 2050, and by 70%, globally. We also must greatly increase the access to food.
But we have to do this in a sustainable fashion, and engineering and technology are key to ensuring that. We have to more prudently use inputs such as pesticides and fertilisers, be adaptive to climate change, reduce the greenhouse gases from agriculture, build up natural capital such as the quality of our soils, and on top of all this, be resilient. We call this approach ‘Sustainable Intensification’. It’s a tall order and developing country farmers need all the help they can get.
One answer lies in Precision Farming. In the developed countries, tractors, cultivators and harvesters can use GPS (Global Positioning System) to position themselves to within a few centimeters of a target, to place fertiliser in the right amounts according to need in different parts of a field. This can be appropriate in some of the larger farms in developing countries, but the principles are also relevant for smallholder farmers.
In Africa farmers use a technique known as microdosing: placing fertiliser in each planting hole using a cap of a soda bottle to deliver a small but precise amount. This method produces high yields, saves costs and reduces the nitrous oxide emissions.
Joby Elliott