Engineering Solutions For Food Security And Sustainable Agriculture

Food security is defined as the timely availability, access, and utilization of food by all the populations for positive health status at all times.

While on the other end, sustainable agriculture is defined as the farming practices that meet the food demands of the present and future generations, without compromising the natural resources, social relations, and profitability.

It can be argued that mitigating the factors affecting food security and sustainability is dire, since the world continues to experience population increase, climate change and natural resource depletion.

This article presents the point and concern, that engineering solutions and the application of technologies and practices from the field, can provide a significant contribution to the Food Security challenge, and should unambiguously propel the transformation of sustainable agriculture.



Present Problems: Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture



The world’s food safety and security, as well as food sovereignty, is currently under a lot of pressure. A very appalling fact is that, more than 820 million people across the globe are suffering from hunger and this number is rising.

According to the UN, These issues are further compounded by climate change, since extreme weather conditions for crop production become unpredictable, thus affecting crop yields and productivity in agriculture(https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/climate-change).

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the United Nations have recommended that climate change could result in a cut in global crop production by 30 percent before the year 2050. Besides, population increases put a great pressure on existing agricultural systems, as the global population is expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050.

Resource depletion adds salt to the injury in this case. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)(https://www.fao.org/sustainable-development-goals/indicators/241/en/) highlights that adopting unsustainable practices in agriculture by using more chemicals, fertilizers, and pesticides, the world is destroying its soils, water, and biological diversity.

Sustenance practices such as monoculture and destruction of forests thereby lead to loss of arable land, which are counter-productive to the longer ends of the farming business.

These interrelated issues can only be solved if the scientific community comes up with more creative solutions that will enable food production, while at the same time protecting the natural resources.



Engineering Solutions For Food Security



Civil solutions are so powerful that they can change the course of agriculture and overcome the challenges of feeding populations across the globe.

According to the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE), An example of such a solution is precision agriculture that aims at enhancing productivity, given limited resources while at the same time, seeking to reduce the effects of its processes on the environment. (https://www.asabe.org/).

Precision agriculture makes use of GPS, sensors, and data analysis to control the crops, so that the farmers can efficiently use water, nutrients, and pest control agents. Such a strategy also enhances efficiency, and minimizes the rates of wastage to many resources in farming and hence its sustainability.

Others include Vertical farming and Urban agriculture as engineering inventions (https://vertical-farming.net/). Vertical farming is the process of stacked and multi-layered growth of crops, in a controlled environment, typically in the cities.

It helps in avoiding the pressure on arable land as practiced in the traditional farming methods, transits less cost in transportation, and helps in the cultivation of all seasons. Such methods like rooftop gardening and community gardening help to feed people in areas of high human density, by decreasing the carbon footprint of transporting foodstuffs.

Other necessities include irrigation techniques and water management practices that have to be applied in sustainable agriculture as well.

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) (https://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/) also shows that the efficient irrigation methods, including the drip method and the soil moisture sensors can halve the amount of water being used by the farmers but increase yield.

These systems actually drip water to the roots of the plants, therefore reducing wastage through evaporation and by runoff. Housing also involves the use of other forms of water supply, especially Reinforcement rain water harvesting and recycling, particularly where water is rare.

Precision agriculture, vertical farming and other engineering solutions, have good potential of solving four major issues of food insecurity and sustainable agriculture.

If we accept these technologies, then someday and maybe soon enough, our world will have enough food for all those who need it, and that will be possible to grow it in a sustainable manner without harming our planet.



Engineering Solutions in Support to Sustainable Agriculture



Organic farming is crucial to development that shall ensure sustainability of the ecosystem and the agri-food chain. It is also important to note that engineering intervention can play a major role in the improvement of the green agriculture production practices.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), calls for practice of agroecology in farming. Some of these practices include crop rotation, polyculture system and use of cover crops which help in soil quality, increase in biological diversities and minimal use of chemical fertilizers.

They also include methods of preventing soil erosion and replenishing it, so that it can continue to provide its functions. Understanding the importance of no-till farming system, contour farming and Agroforestry in fighting against rates of soil erosion and boosting the fertility of the soils.