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Prof. Achim Walter

Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Professor in Crop Science, D-USYS, ETH Zürich

06.04.2020 1

Sustainable agriculture from a scientific perspective

SDG lecture, A. Walter

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Agriculture is related to many of the 17 SDGs


How can we sustainably feed the world in view of rising demography and spatial constraints?

How can digitalization and technology help in this endeavor?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of biological versus conventional agriculture?

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Answer from the scientific perspective:

Answers to all three questions are complex – there is no ‚one size fits all‘ solution

06.04.2020SDG lecture, A. Walter 3

Suggested reading (10 years old) for a

decently complete picture:Pretty et al. (2010), International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 8 (4)

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Technology and Food Systems? A controversial relationship

‚Technology‘ has changed our food

Technology has often been picked up

rapidly around the world in a uniform

manner…

…and has led to a wide-reaching change of

practices, if it improved population growth

and the resilience of food systems…

…but only continues to be applied, if

technology improves sustainability!


‚Food Systems‘ are becoming

more uniform around the world

A healthy diet is a diverse diet

(more to come: Next week?)

The production of food is still

connected (and will always be)

with the ‚natural preconditions‘ of

a region (soil, climate, culture)

Since these are highly variable

solutions for challenges in food

systems need to vary between

countries, crops, circumstancesWhich aspects of ‚digital technologies‘

can be helpful to increase sustainability?

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Technology – Resilience – Sustainability


Early technology made it possible

to shift from hunter/gatherer

lifestyle to sessile farming lifestyle

This facilitated the division of labor

that is the foundation of most of

today‘s societies

Yet, even ‚primitive technology‘

allowing for hundreds of years of

food resilience can lead to a

collapse of societies, if

sustainability is not taken into

account

Moai heads from Rapa Nui (Osterinsel) – a culture that collapsed few hundred years ago due to unsustainable agricultural practices (Wikipedia)

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Crucial Question: Is our global society facing the same threat?

Developing World: High share of

smallholder farms

High temperatures, tropical soils


Industrialized Agriculture: Only

few people still working in farming

Consumers and markets expect

food prices to stay relatively low

Yes – and we need to find solutions with differentiated measures

for different situations, allowing to balance the global situation

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Situations and challenges differ enormously between countries


• Developing countries depend on smallholder farming often without access even to

basic technology. Improving e.g. crop nutrition by organic fertilizers, manure,…

• Ind. countries have low shares of people employed and knowledgable in farming.

Dichotomy: back-to-nature versus technology-believers 06.04.2020

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A core issue of global concern: World Hunger – related to poverty


http://www.fao.org/state-of-food-security-nutrition06.04.2020

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Can organic agriculture (Bio-Landwirtschaft) feed the world?

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The 2020 plague

of grasshoppers

in eastern Africa:

Tackling this

without

pesticides?

06.04.2020

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Can organic agriculture (Bio-Landwirtschaft) feed the world?

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• In principle yes, but…

• We would need to eat

less meat

• No one knows, how

crop diseases would

develop

06.04.2020

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Agriculture, culture & society

• Ca. 10’000 a ago: Domestication of plants & animals

• Only since then: Sessile lifestyle, differentiated societies high population densities, cities…

• Agriculture is the foundation of our culture & societies

Reading recommendation: ‘Guns, Germs and Steel’ (Jared Diamond) Mohenjo Daro: Oldest citySDG lecture, A. Walter

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Agriculture and technology

• During 5’000 a: Domestication of useful species

• During 9’900 a: Moderate development of technology

• The past 100 a: Explosive development of technology, breeding (biological features of species) and human population density SDG lecture, A. Walter

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Agriculture and breeding

• During 5’000 a: Domestication of useful species

• During 9’900 a: Moderate development of technology

• The past 100 a: Explosive development of technology, breeding (biological features of species) and human population density

We co-evolvedwith our food


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Today: ‚Industrial Agriculture‘ in lots of regions

06.04.2020 14

Solutions?

1.) Decrease / consolidate livestock production

2.) Less intense, more diverse crop cultivation (Org. Ag. etc.)

3.) Smart use and development of technology

a) Biotechnology (e.g. CRISPR/Cas9)

b) Digitalization / Sensing / Robotics (crop phenotyping)

To my opinion, all of these approaches are required!

06.04.2020 14

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Role of ‘Digitalization’? Impressions from ‘Agritech day 2019’ @ ETH Zürich

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Suggested reading (3 years old) on the

role of digital technologies:Walter et al. (2017), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114.

06.04.2020SDG lecture, A. Walter

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Digital technologies in developing countries

SDG lecture, A. Walter 06.04.2020

Smallholders need to be given access

to affordable devices and means to

help solving their real-world challenges

R. Finger, S.M. Swinton, N. El Benni, A. Walter.. Precision Farming at the Nexus of Agricultural Production and

the Environment. Annu. Rev. Resour. Econ. 2019. 11; https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-100518-093929.

(ETH Zürich, Agroscope Switzerland, Michigan State University, USA)

https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-100518-093929

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One of the first developments: iCow (Kenya)

17www.icow.co.ke/

• SMS messages with farming advice

• Social media platform

• Made by smallholder farmers


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UjuziKilimo (Kenya); supported by local stakeholders

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• Including simple

sensor data

• Big data

approaches

• Precision

agriculture

• Smallholder

farmers and

local partners

https://www.ujuzikilimo.com06.04.2020SDG lecture, A. Walter

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Virtual Irrigation Academy (supported by CSIRO, Australia)

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• Sensors

deliberately

developed for this

application

• Publicly funded

research supports

farmers

• Projects in

Tanzania, Malawi

and other countries

https://via.farm06.04.2020SDG lecture, A. Walter

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Hello Tractor (like Uber); Nigerian network / app

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• Technology

sharing

• Connects

farmers, owners,

dealers

• More expensive

devices (e.g.

tractors,

ploughs,…)

• Prepares the

ground for future

technology

diffusion

https://www.hellotractor.com06.04.2020SDG lecture, A. Walter

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Digital technologies in industrialized countries


The principles of precision agriculture

need to be obeyed: When, where and

how much input is needed?

R. Finger, S.M. Swinton, N. El Benni, A. Walter.. Precision Farming at the Nexus of Agricultural Production and

the Environment. Annu. Rev. Resour. Econ. 2019. 11; https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-100518-093929.

(ETH Zürich, Agroscope Switzerland, Michigan State University, USA)

• Develop high-end technology to make agriculture more efficient

• Transdisciplinary research approaches are required here as well

• Aim for later spill-over to developing countries

https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-100518-093929

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State of the Art: Spraying Drone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2YPG8PO9JU

DJI MG-1S – ‘Agricultural Wonder Drone’ (in use throughout Asia) 06.04.2020SDG lecture, A. Walter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2YPG8PO9JU

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State of the Art: Weeding robot in the vineyardhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGlo7woEhQo

Ted, the vineyard weeding robot (company Naio, France) 06.04.2020SDG lecture, A. Walter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGlo7woEhQo

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Robot follows a row of crops

Straddling / hoeing between rows

Turning automatically at end of row

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State of the Art: Weeding robot in the vineyard

SDG lecture, A. Walter 06.04.2020Ted, the vineyard weeding robot (company Naio, France)

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State of the Art: Weeding robot in the vegetable field

06.04.2020

Robot Oz (Naio) – there’s also a robot ‘Dino’ for larger fieldsSDG lecture, A. Walter 06.04.2020

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State of the Art: Application of herbicides on weeds onlyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YCa8RntsRE

See & Spray - Blue River Technology's precision weed control (John Deere) 06.04.2020SDG lecture, A. Walter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YCa8RntsRE

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State of the Art: Application of herbicides on weeds only


Blue River Technology, USA, acquired 2017 by John Deere

Image processing to detect weeds

Spraying only on weeds to reduce herbicides

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Research forefront: Autonomous field controlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li9eWpLGFiU

RIPPA: Demonstrating Autonomous Crop Interaction in Australia06.04.2020SDG lecture, A. Walter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li9eWpLGFiU

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Research forefront: Autonomous field control

SDG lecture, A. Walter 06.04.2020Left: RIPPA (multi-functional); University of Sidney; upper right: AgBot II,

Queensland University; lower right: di-wheel, University of Sidney

Solar powered

Individual weeds

Different measures

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Youtube clip on ‘Smart Farming’ Technology development @ ETH

06.04.2020SDG lecture, A. Walter 30https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVdciT9D6Jc

EU project ‘Flourish’ (2014-2018):

Coordinating the activities of a drone and a ground robot

to detect weeds and to remove them autonomously

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Development: Communicating, small robots

Xaver, Agricultural robot swarm by company Fendt / AGCO: Autonomous single seed sowing

Small (50 kg), interacting robots

Single grain seeding (maize)

Product Xaver, research project “mobile agricultural robot swarms” in Germany


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Conclusions

1. There is no ‚one size fits all‘ solution; dogmas

are not helpful

2. We have co-evolved with our food; we cannot

turn back time

3. Further development of technology is necessary

and requires transdisciplinary approaches

4. Sensor Technology, Artificial Intelligence and

Automation will play a vital role for European

Agriculture, amongst other things

5. Reducing Hunger in Africa requires increasing

incomes, political stability and access to

meaningful technology, amongst other things06.04.2020SDG lecture, A. Walter 32

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Thank You!


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