Opening Insights: Cultivating People
The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops,
but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.
MASANOBU FUKUOKA, The One-Straw Revolution
Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), or drones, are changing the way things are done in many marketplaces. For instance, Amazon has been testing its Prime Air 30-minute click, ship and delivery service. Uber Eats has been testing UAS to streamline their food delivery segment. San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has been using UAS to inspect their power lines and infrastructure since 2015 and first responders across the country are adding them to their asset inventories.
The applications of UAS are endless with more being conceptualized and implemented through pilot programs each day. This is a marketplace with much growth yet to arrive on the horizon.
One such critically important market segment for UAS is agriculture. Precision Agriculture is a term that has been around for a long time. It is characterized by the use of advanced sensing and measuring systems to collect and process data which provides a detailed assessment in multiple areas of production. UAS are uniquely suited to this application of sensor technology and data harvesting due to their ease of use, mobility and low cost of operation.
Some areas of agriculture which benefit from the application of UAS include:
- Physical Properties: soil moisture content, fertilizer effectiveness, overall crop health
- Personnel Direction – assessing: what needs to be done, when to do it, the effectiveness of the action and validation that it was accomplished
- Agricultural HI™: the cultivation of human intelligence as a result of applying a structured learning and application methodology which not only increases production and security, but stimulates development of thinking processes (read on to learn more)
Informational Insights: Right Tool for the Job
Ethiopian "agriculture accounts for 45% of the economy, 80% of employment and three quarters of total export earnings." In a struggling country where efficient resource application and the development of human capital is of critical importance, using the best tool for the job is an absolute must. Currently, that tool is UAS and the accompanying software and methodology associated with it.
The following article was published by Bloomberg|Quint, “a multiplatform, Indian business and financial news company.” It was written by Samuel Gebre, a Bloomberg journalist focused on "economy, politics and technology" – "working, learning and traveling in Africa."
(Bloomberg) -- A former JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst is using drones and satellites to boost Ethiopia’s agricultural exports and improve food security in a nation once synonymous with famine.
Africa’s second most populous country, still struggles to feed itself. But now the government’s Agriculture Transformation Agency, headed by Khalid Bomba, is aiming for widespread commercial farming and food security in 20 years. It’s modeling itself on initiatives in South Korea and Taiwan.
“The reason Ethiopia’s agricultural sector has not developed is because we have not leveraged technology,” said Bomba, 51, who spent a decade at JPMorgan on Wall Street and in London and later worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation developing and managing grants in the agriculture sector.
In the country of 108 million people agriculture accounts for 45% of the economy, 80% of employment and three quarters of total export earnings. Subsistence farming, small plots and limited access to fertilizer means that most farmers struggle.
Coffee, which originated in Ethiopia, and oilseeds are the country’s two main exports, earning the country $1.2 billion in the year ending July 7, 2019. In addition to being Africa’s largest coffee producer the country also exports roses and vegetables. It also grows tea and wine grapes.
“The biggest challenge Ethiopia faces now is a very large and growing population, which will keep increasing the demand for food and jobs,” said Nega Wubeneh, adviser at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. “Despite the improvements in the productivity of crops, the yields are still below global averages and agronomic potential.”
Drone-Assisted Purchases
Bomba’s agency uses satellite soil mapping, toll-free numbers, drones and an in-house consultancy to help farmers.
Potential buyers are able to zoom in on a map of Ethiopia, search for a farm by area and commodity, watch a drone video of the produce to assess its condition and call the farmers directly to purchase the crops. Small farmers have been clustered together so that they grow the same crop using the same methods.
“It’s easier to find a market for 200 hectares of crop rather than half a hectare,” Bomba said of the clusters, which produce wheat, corn, sesame, barley, fruit and horticultural crops. The project plans to double the income of 5 million farmers within five years, he said in an interview in his spacious office in Addis Ababa.
The agency also aims to improve access to seeds and boost fertilizer use. Morocco’s OCP Group has committed to building a $3.7 billion fertilizer plant, which is scheduled to open in 2023.
Poor Infrastructure
The average for fertilizer consumption per hectare (2.47 acres) is 140 kilograms (309 pounds). In Ethiopia the usage is a 10th of that, according to the World Bank. In neighboring Kenya, farmers use an average of 36 kilograms of fertilizer per hectare.
That’s important in a country that’s seen its agricultural potential held back by poor infrastructure and a lack of access to markets and finance, according to Han Ulac Demirag, country director for Ethiopia and South Sudan for the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
“We want to make sure that people’s perceptions that persist from the 1980s of drought and famine is replaced by a perception of an Ethiopia that is food secure. A country that feeds itself and feeds other parts of Africa,” Bomba said.
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
This article originally appeared in BLOOMBERG|QUAINT: Ethiopia Uses Drones in Bid to Help Improve Food Security
Possibilities of Consideration: A Platform Approach
Far beyond the application of technology for efficiency, when agriculture is used as a vehicle for human intelligence (HI) development, the resulting effects on communities transcend an increase in gross domestic product to a process of growing human capital.
To increase the value of UAS as a tool for social culturally responsible community development, Awareness Communication Technology, LLC. (AwareComm®) offers a Platform as a Partnership characterized by the following elements:
- Platform – blend of machine learning / artificial intelligence (AI) and data science / business intelligence (BI) with a human understanding (HU) foundation that cultivates and propagates human intelligence (HI)
- a foundation of HI opens the gateway to critical thinking and creative problem solving
- interpretation of HI is the gateway to spiritual intelligence
- Learning Methodology that parallels Harvard’s multiple-intelligence theory, but also integrates Whole Brain Learning that incorporates:
- EMDR principles
- Multiple-intelligences
- Differentiated instruction
- App-based delivery system
- Publishing System that activates Whole Brain Learning through:
- Dynamic Relational Models™ (DRM) – based on human understanding (HU) algorithms
- Applied Knowledge Transfer – begin with value, then learn it, do it, teach it, keep it
- Socratic Conversation – storytelling, questioning and thought-activation
- Data Science – full human intelligence interfaces for data neutrality
- Analytics Program – generating socially aware and socially responsible data scientists from the people who use the system
As a result of the Whole Brain AI-BI-HI platform being woven into community agricultural development and training, associated individuals will experience in themselves and in their culture an evolution in creative thinking, individual maturity and interdependence. They then carry this transformation forward into other areas o their communities.
This process enables the re-development of existing training material into AI-BI-HI Study Guides that nurture the problem-solving methodology in individuals, who then transmit the value they found into existing collective processes. More importantly, these study guides enable our platform to engage in AI-BI-HI research which collects data using a proprietary process that ensures a new level of Data Neutrality for more meaningful analytics that improve reporting and decision making.
Communities strengthened in this manner, through development of HI for an increase in human capital, need not wait until the harvest to measure the benefits. Applying the AwareComm® Platform as a Partnership in the application of UAS operations and training results in responsible social cultural development year-round, throughout the entire community.
Add Your Insight
Take a moment and examine…
- As you reviewed the material above, what stood out to you?
- What is the potential impact, economically and/or socially?
- What action is needed to stop or support this idea?
- You may want to consider whether you:
- want to be aware of,
- should become supportive of,
- would want to be active in this topic?
I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Being willing is not enough; we must do.
LEONARDO DA VINCI