How Technology Can Reduce Hunger

There are so many ways that technology can reduce world hunger or the potential for it to occur. This technology can affect nearly every part of the food supply chain. For example, finding new ways to produce bulk chicken feed can, in turn, improve production and also allow for more microbial safety.

This is just one of many examples, and below are more details about how technology is currently playing a role in the supply of food worldwide, reducing challenges that can contribute to hunger and shortages.

The History of Agricultural Technology

In the late 1960s, the so-called Green Revolution began, and since that time, technology has played an ever-evolving and important role in food security and efforts to reduce and end world hunger. The Green Revolution was when researchers were working on new agricultural production methods to increase crop yields. The advances from this period still play a role in the reduction of global food insecurity.

Precision agriculture is one area that’s especially promising. With precision agriculture, there’s a collection of crop and soil condition data from sensors. That data is then used for decision-making about crop management. With precision agriculture, it’s increasingly possible to reduce waste, improve the quality of soil, and increase yields.

Another area of research and technological innovation comes with genetically engineered crops. Genetic engineering can help with the production of food, as well as improve nutritional quality, the stability of food supplies when they’re stored, and pest resistance.

Researchers are also working on chicken development so that they can eventually produce more eggs at a younger age and pigs that will grow larger and faster than they do in the wild.

Hydroponic Cultivation

The World Food Programme Innovation Accelerator piloted a program starting in 2016 called H2Grow, which focused on hydroponic cultivation. Hydroponic cultivation uses 90% less water and also takes up 75% more space than traditional means of farming, and it can be well-suited to even very extreme conditions like in the Sahara.

In the Sahrawi refugee camp, where the pilot program was tested, farmers would use things like scrap metal to grow barley. They can then feed the barley to livestock, increasing the nutritional value of the meat and milk being produced, as well as increasing the quantity.

The success of that program led to the project’s expansion around the world. It currently operates in nine countries.

Since the founding of the WFP Innovation Accelerator, it’s been working on the UN Sustainable Development Goal of ending world hunger by 2030.

Another part of the WFP Innovation Accelerator program is called the Farm to Market Alliance, which is a private sector network using an app to connect small farmers to markets. There’s also E-Shop, which is a platform for ordering food online and managing the deliveries to food-insecure people in Somalia.

The Use of AI

AI can help farmers be more efficient in how they produce food. For example, as was briefly touched on above, the use of AI can help optimize planting and harvesting schedules and also in the identification of areas that will be best suited to agriculture.

AI has the potential to help farmers reduce how much they rely on chemicals like pesticides, and it can help with food distribution. AI, for example, can help in the development of algorithms that improve delivery routes and schedules for food so that the food reaches people who need it most while simultaneously reducing waste.

One of the most important ways that technology can play a role in the food supply chain is through the provision of data to guide operations. The data has to not just be available but also to be available in a timely way so that farmers can make the right decisions at the right time.

Digital Finance Platforms

Another way that technology has the potential to improve food production and availability and reduce insecurity is through the availability of finance platforms. Farmers across the globe face barriers to financing. That makes it difficult to expand and diversify their activities, meaning low yield and low food production.

Loan platforms that leverage technology is becoming increasingly common.

Farmers are being connected with the funding they need, and they’re also being linked to premium markets.

Technology has to be appropriate for local contexts, so it can be used across the production and consumption chains. Primary goals of technology in food production include the production of high-quality products that is available on a global scale, helping not only reduce food insecurity but improve overall socio-economic well-being.