The WEF report on emerging technologies in 2023 unveils wearable plant sensors as a tool that can improve agricultural productivity. This innovation is a revolutionary stride for the agriculture sector.
Wearable technology is an integral part of the fourth industrial revolution (the fourth industrial revolution merged the physical and the virtual). It is one of the pivotal innovations that came out of the fourth revolution. Wearable technology allows for easy connectivity and seamless interaction with advanced technology.
What is wearable technology?
Electronic devices that are designed to be worn on the user’s body are referred to as wearable technology. To an extent, wearable technology has become mainstream and, nowadays, we can see it in use for many reasons. Wearable technology is quite popular in healthcare and security. For example, there are wearable devices to alert diabetics about their sugar levels, smart wristwatches often alert users about their heart rate, and a pedometer to track steps, etc. There are wearable devices for security reasons, like pendants and necklaces that people can wear to alert authorities about their location to get help faster.
Simply put, wearable technology can be smart technology integrated into everyday items that users can carry around, which can be jewelry, wristwatches, glasses, clothing, helmets, and even clothes, among others. Wearable technology comes as a huge relief in mitigating several problems. We have already seen the positive strides this technology has made in healthcare, and it can be revolutionary for people with disabilities as well.
Now that we have understood what wearable technology is, let us investigate one of the emerging technologies of 2023, i.e., wearable plant sensors.
Wearable plant sensors:
Wearable plant sensors are devices that are attached to plants to record and detect plant health and deficiencies. This innovation is the integration of smart technology where biosignals can help give deeper insights into plant health, which was previously time-consuming when done using the traditional methods.
Why is this device revolutionary?
A vital component of our lives is food, and agtech (sustainable agricultural technology) is transforming with the digitisation of sectors around the world. Innovations like these can really help agricultural industries around the world and help experts focus on pressing issues like biodiversity erosion due to agriculture taking up land. A couple of questions that arise when new innovations crop up, especially with agtech like wearable plant sensors are:
- What problems are we looking to address in agriculture with this innovation?
- What are the economic benefits to farmers and the sector from integrating this technology into the agricultural sector?
- How does this technology solve the existing problems and improve productivity in this vital sector?
Crop loss is a persistent issue affecting productivity in the agricultural sector and will need efforts at the systemic level to reach a resolution. Addressing crop loss is a crucial step in ensuring food production and reducing food wastage. Collaborative efforts between the government and the agricultural sector are important to address this issue amicably. Crop loss can happen for several reasons:
- Weather issues
- Soil degradation
- Climate change
- Pests and diseases
Let us investigate how wearable plant sensors help in mitigating these problems:
Plant growth and all the other processes in relation to it such as photosynthesis, transpiration, and respiration are a set of complicated and sensitive processes. Plants are vulnerable to various other elements in the environment too. When toxic elements from the environment encounter plants, it adversely affects the growth of the plant. Traditional methods of crop monitoring like visual inspection and soil assessment would not be able to quickly detect micro-changes in plant health and biotic stresses that the crops are under in the earlier stages. Further, traditional methods of plant health assessment are tedious and time-consuming.
The study, ‘Emerging wearable sensors for plant health monitoring’ by G Lee and et al 2021, expands on this technology. According to this study, while wearable devices have been around in the healthcare sector, in the agricultural sector the application of wearable devices is still in its infancy.
How does a wearable plant sensor work?
For plant health assessment, wearable plant sensors can be attached to the plants near the roots, leaves or stem, and the device measures the ideal conditions the plants need to survive–alerting if the conditions are unfavorable, thereby preventing the loss of productivity of the plant.
How does this mitigate the problem of crop loss?
The WEF, in its report, ‘Top 10 emerging technologies of 2023’ says that this plant sensor is anticipated to improve plant health and increase agricultural productivity. Farmers can get real-time access to data about their crops which helps them streamline the solutions needed to save their crops. Additionally, these sensors are non-invasive and do the monitoring/assessment continuously, so there is minimal manual intervention required. With the use of this device, being able to prevent plant productivity loss is one of the largest breakthroughs in the agricultural sector, as food wastage is a rampant and persistent problem that this sector deals with, from steps of production to transportation of grains, and storage. This sensor can take care of the prevention of loss of crops by detecting their health before it is too late to save them and provide higher accuracy in assessment compared to traditional methods of plant health monitoring.
Challenges in making this innovation mainstream:
There are several issues with making this device mainstream and one prominent roadblock is its cost. It is quite expensive to install and maintain these devices. Farmers and the other workforce involved in agriculture at the root level need to understand and equip themselves with the necessary skills needed to understand the data being presented to them through this device.
Once we go past these hurdles, WEF is positive that this innovation will help to: mitigate the environmental issues associated with agriculture, increase food production to feed the growing population and reduce crop loss. While wearable plant technology is an exciting area of research, it is still in its preliminary stages, and most of its applications are in the experimental stages. With rapid technological advances and sustainable living becoming two crucial factors for industries globally, we may see further developments in this field.
