Agricultural Production Systems are set to improve our lands’ ability to produce goods of all types through profitable and copious means with cautious and careful management towards the ecosystem, public health, animal welfare and the wellbeing of communities.
In order to fulfill the needs of the increasingly growing population and the developing modern world. The significant differences between the means of farming are prominent between each new change since the primitive age and till this day as it is continuously developing and changing in order to meet it’s required standards. In olden times, agriculture depended immensely on human labour but as time developed the more tools and machinery were built and developed in order to aid humans in such processes of which range all the way from ploughing and to harvesting and threshing.
These developments in equipment and machinery not only help with the welfare of animals but also helps in the welfare fair of the humans as well as the amount and quantity of the goods and produce.
Agricultural Systems Throughout the Ages
The Ancient World
There is often proof of constant development in the agricultural world ever since humans first understood the concept of farming from around 9500 B.C. Different regions and different civilizations adapted differently to their climates such as around 8000 B.C., the Sumerians had quite little rainfall and so irrigation almost solely depended on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Thanks to irrigation canals, leading from the rivers, large enough quantities of cereals to support cities were produced.
Ancient Egypt also depended greatly on the Nile River, even until this day it still does, with most of the lands located around the river in concentration. Often labeled as the Gift of the Nile, the Nile river flooded annually of which the Egyptians took as a great celebration and offered the river gifts as a sign of thanks for its help in making Egypt the empire it was. Farming was often a sacred activity as it made Egypt what it was and so Egyptians were cautious enough to use hieroglyphics to show its importance and giving advice on crop damage and loss of life from the Nile’s floods.
For irrigation, Egyptians and several others started using the Shadoof, a seesaw of sorts which was an early irrigation tool used from around 2000 B.C. It was used to lift water from a river or a lake onto land or into another river or lake by moving the long pole that was attached to a bucket that held the water using a counterweight on the other end of the pole.
Alongside the cultivation of plants, pastoralism started around the same time. Pastoralism is the act of caring, tending and raising of livestock such as cattle, camels and goats.
Animals were milked for dairy products and used their wool to weave textiles, which they could trade with agricultural societies if they lived within a close enough distance to them.
The Modern World
The Green Revolution operated from around the 1940s until the 1970s, it was a series of researches, development and technology transfer initiatives. The movement is said to have helped save over half a million people from starvation as well as having helped with several other aspects in the agricultural world such as the expansion of irrigation infrastructure, modernization of management techniques, distribution of several materials such as synthetic fertilizers and pesticides to farmers and several other developments occurred as a result.
Nowadays, in the modern world, farmers can much easily operate and complete their tasks as they now have access to the developments of the 21st century of which include wireless and GPS technology in order to help them monitor their livestock and produce; it also combines and evaluates the inputted data to help better proceed and make better decisions and plans.
The modernization of the agriculture production systems helped increase the crop yield immensely and should continue to do so if operated correctly will taking into account all aspects of the surrounding environment. Alongside the modernization of agricultural methods and equipment, there was also the inclusion of biotechnology in the process and crop alteration. Plant breeding and genetic engineering helped farmers grow certain crops with certain preferred characteristics, helping with having a wider range of produce and plants.
The Future of Technology and Agricultural Production Systems
With all things considered from the beginning of agriculture, our knowledge of what to avoid and what to proceed with should remain clear and within reach in one’s thoughts, especially as concepts are developed and bettered while taking note of everything that helps and everything that negatively effects one’s work and the environment.
As the world keeps on developing alongside its population, so does its complexity, especially within recent years due to many factors such as the most obvious factor that was made note of and that is the rapid population increase as well as its increased level of demand for food, water and energy. All these needs increase pressure on natural resources and it has increasingly become an issue as there is limited arable land in order to expand food production to help fulfill the needs of this increasing population.
However, looking from the technological aspect, it is clear that it will help decrease waste, help increase productivity and the environment should be affected as little as possible if done correctly and with enough caution while operating the machinery as it will either harm or help the environment. With all aspects taken into consideration, one thing is made clear, that in order to reach the desired level of efficiency and success wanted there should be increased focus on reaching a certain standard development level to ensure that the strides made alongside technology will be for our benefit.
Vertical farming is preferred more often than rural farming as it has more potential advantages such as year-round crop production, eliminates agricultural run-off and offers the possibility of sustainability for urban centers among several other benefits. Vertical farming may also challenge the need of using soil in order to cultivate a wide range of crops by instead including the usage of hydroponics. Hydroponics is the use of mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent which is a process where plants are grown without the use of soil. Due to the use of this cultivation method, productivity is set to increase alongside the increasing amount of high-rise buildings or number of racks in a single high-rise area. Many other supporting technologies have been investigated in past alternatives of greenhouse farming but are now melding into commercially feasible systems as a result of rapid recent advances in electronics, computing power, LED lighting, engineering, solar energy, storage batteries, wind power and water recycling.
The general hope and target is to create a new generation of intelligent, malleable, robust, accommodating, interlocked robotic and autonomous systems working effortlessly alongside the workers in farms and factories in order to increase manufacturing productivity and nurture future food security.
The 1st FNSSA conference will focus on the recent researches and discoveries in the arena of functional foods, nutraceuticals, food safety, sustainable agriculture, agro-food engineering, technology and food security.
The conference will offer a unique opportunity for researchers in both academia and private sector, experts, founders, CEOs’, SMEs, industry, business delegates and youthful scientists across the globe to meet, network, share findings, publish the latest results and advances and perceive new scientific innovations in the field. In this context the conference will provide researchers, practitioners, educators, and investors with the most recent innovations, trends, concerns, practical challenges, and solutions in various fields of food and nutrition security, and sustainable agriculture.
Registration link :
https://www.food-conference.org/events/food-nutrition-security-and-sustainable-agriculture-1st#objectiveoftheconference
Food & Nutrition, Food Safety and Control, Industry 4.0 for Agro-Food industry development, Agro-Food Business and Food security,
Water&Food and Energy, Sustainable Agriculture