FFTC Journal of Agricultural Policy

Smart and resilient agri-food systems for integrating smallholder farmers into global value chains

The Weather-rice-nutrient integrated decision support system (WeRise) is a web-based app aimed at improving productivity and livelihoods in rainfed rice areas. It provides advisories on optimum sowing and fertilizer application timings using suitable varieties. It was developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)-Japan collaborative research project (IJCRP) and IRRI-Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice)-Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) collaborative research project (IPJCRP) with funding from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan and JIRCAS. The IJCRP and IPJCRP ended in December 2020 and March 2021, respectively. Research institutions may lack the mandate to monitor research investments and assess the impact of projects after they end. However, funding agencies expect them to target and achieve
Technology transfer from a government research institution to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is crucial to ensure the products of research and development (R&D) will gain market acceptance. Technology is useless until it benefits the community in general. However, technology transfer is the most challenging and critical process. Thus, technology developed by government research institutions must be transferred for the benefit of the community in general and in specific, the entrepreneur. This paper shares the experience of MARDI, one of the largest government research institutions in Malaysia, in transferring smart agriculture technology to young entrepreneurs. Smart agriculture refers to the application of ICT technology in producing agricultural products. MARDI developed a small-scale or container-type plant factory called AgroCube to grow high-value vegetables. MARDI
Digital farming is the latest stage of modern agriculture, which let us lead to the question “who makes decision on farm management with full of data?” Exploration for answering to the question needs at least two storyboards of thinking in a systems approach: a new stage of farm work mechanization and a new phase of farm work decision in physical and cyber spaces. Typical topics introduced here were: four phases of decision in precision agriculture, community-based approaches, digital farming scheme and target, cyber-physical farming model, and policy linkage, which are usually involved in the movement of agricultural transformation. These topics will help readers to explore the future farming schemes in countries. Keywords: precision management, community-based, cyber-physical, mechanization
Vietnam’s agriculture has gained outstanding achievements such as having a foothold on its food and nutrition security, solving the jobs in the rural areas, its contribution to GDP, etc., but it has also been facing challenges in the context of climate change and disasters. Smart agriculture is a solution for Vietnam and its small farmers to overcome the above difficulties. Smart agriculture helps farmers gain access to complete and timely information, skills, techniques to make better decisions in their production and trading. This will lead to farmers’ increases in productivity, outputs, income and profits. The application of smart agriculture in Vietnam still has some basic limitations such as small household size, high cost in technology investments, difficulties in accessing capital, land and suitable technologies, etc. To develop smart agriculture in Vietnam, the State needs to
One of the greatest challenges in the 21st century is how to sufficiently and sustainably feed the world population with nutritional and safe food. Plant factory with artificial lighting (PFAL) is a closed plant production system. Regardless of environments outside, PFAL is considered as an alternative technology for food and feed production with high efficiency, high quality and low risk to health of customers. Therefore, the aim of this review is to provide the basic information on the current situation, direction, government policy and support and challenges of PFAL technology in Thailand. PFAL was introduced to Thailand in the early 2000s for academic purposes. Several universities and research institutes have paid more attention to research and development on plant production in PFAL as well as developing new PFAL systems. Moreover, PFAL is now attracting great attention among
The agricultural sector is a source of food, clean water, and natural medicine, which is very important for human life. Agricultural problems need to be handled by the massive use of robotics and artificial intelligence technology along the agricultural value chain from upstream to downstream (from land to consumer) with the help of satellites and drones for remote sensing. Precision Agriculture is a system where input, process, and output parameters are measured and controlled precisely and accurately to produce efficient and productive agriculture. This paper aims to present the applications of Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain technology in Indonesia's agriculture. Three case studies and conceptual designs are presented, i.e., IoT and machine learning for quality monitoring of mango in long-distance transportation, IoT and blockchain application for logistics and supply chain
This paper aims to discuss the development of smart farming in the context of agricultural transformation and is supported by the advancement of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has formulated the strategy to develop an independent, self-reliant, and modern agriculture through combining precision agriculture with digital information technology and is defined as smart farming. Currently, there are several types of digital farming that have been initiated and implemented by the MoA in some areas of Indonesia. Among other things are Integrated Cropping Calendar (Katam) and Agriculture War Room (AWR) platforms. The country is well-positioned to take advantage of the ICTs since a large majority of farmers have reliable access to the internet and use it daily. It can be linked to an electronic network-based finger which is called
In the 21st century, Taiwan is facing significant challenges such as land fragmentation, agricultural labor population decline, and unpredictable weather conditions caused by climate change which all put stress on agricultural outputs. While facing the formidable stress in production management, it becomes one of the essential tasks for government officials in Taiwan to take advantage of the well-developed Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to improve the development of smart agriculture and enhance the competitiveness of Taiwan’s agricultural industry. In 2015, the Information Management Center (IMC) of the Council of Agriculture launched the project “Smart Farm Management System (SFMS)” (https://agrepm.coa.gov.tw/) for agricultural enterprises which aims to facilitate the recording processes on farming practices and put the smart agriculture tools in practice to improve