1- Food security issue

2- Technology as a solution
3- What is Smart irrigation?

Hunger is among the major problems humankind is dealing with in the 21th century. It is the
cause of XXX deaths per year, is suffered by XXX people and is focused on African countries. In
this context hunger is not a feeling, but a nutritional state in which the sick individual has a
severe and chronic deficit of macro and micronutrients, which leads to several other diseases
that may end with death.

In order to stop this problem, food should be provided to people that are suffering from
hunger. The first step is to produce enough food for every single person in the planet. Although
this is an increasingly hard mission because of the constant population growth, the calories
produced are enough to feed the entire world population. However, this does not guarantee
neither the equal partition of all these tons of food, or the nutrition of all humans.

Firstly, food products are very important goods in current international trade, which means
they will, independently of where were they grown, be destined to their buyers and not
necessarily to the consumer that need it the most. Due to this, people in developed countries
have a much bigger variety of food than those who live in developing ones. Secondly, this lack
of food variety on a human’s diet can lead to diseases like kwashiorkor, that emerge when the
individual suffers from a lack of protein on its diet.

Once the food grows out of the soil, a new problem emerges. Not all this food is harnessed, but
in the developed world one third of it is wasted at homes, restaurants or supermarkets, while
in the developing world also one third is lost in the next steps after harvesting. In the first case,
conscientization campaigns, better work organization between farmers, distributors and
retailers and use of undesired food can be done. Much more difficult is to develop a modern
agricultural system in all those industrially undeveloped countries that are losing so much food
after growing it.

Technology appears as a solution to this problem. Especially smart irrigation comes as a

innovation that pretends to reduce water scarcity in agriculture, which is another big problem
of this industry, and thereby of food security.

Nevertheless, technology requires from a lot of investment, which means the selling of lands
from these developing countries to massive agrarian companies. These companies will always
watch for their own profits, and these will usually mean selling products to developed western
countries, who will pay more for those products.

2. What is smart irrigation?

Smart irrigation controllers and sensors have been developed to reduce outdoor
water use by irrigating based on plant water need compared to traditional
automatic system timers, which irrigate on a user-determined fixed schedule.
This technology exists as a complete controller or as a sensor that can be
added to an existing irrigation timer to create a smart controller. Smart irrigation
technology uses weather data or soil moisture data to determine the irrigation
need of the landscape. Smart irrigation technology includes:

These technologies maximize irrigation efficiency by reducing water waste,

while maintaining plant health and quality. Incorporating smart irrigation
technology in the landscape can potentially reduce outdoor water consumption.
This technology is appropriate for small, residential landscapes as well as large,
managed landscapes.

REFERENCES
https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/smart-irrigation-technology-controllers-
and-sensors.html#:~:text=Smart%20irrigation%20technology%20uses
%20weather,maintaining%20plant%20health%20and%20quality.

https://www.hydropoint.com/what-is-smart-irrigation/

An overview of smart irrigation systems using IoT, by Khaled Obaideen et.al

Fao. THE HAGUE CONFERENCE ON AGRICULTURE, FOOD SECURITY AND

CLIMATE CHANGE
PRESENTATION
Once the food grows out of the soil, a new problem emerges. Not all this food is harnessed, but
in the developed world one third of it is wasted at homes, restaurants or supermarkets, while
in the developing world also one third is lost in the next steps after harvesting. In the first case,
conscientization campaigns, better work organization between farmers, distributors and
retailers and use of undesired food can be done. Much more difficult is to develop a modern
agricultural system in all those industrially undeveloped countries that are losing so much food
after growing it.

Technology appears as a solution to this problem. Especially smart irrigation comes as a

innovation that pretends to reduce water scarcity in agriculture, which is another big problem
of this industry, and thereby of food security.

Water is the one of the fundamental ingredients to grow crops and feed livestock. Nowadays,
due to climate change and population growth, water scarcity is one of biggest challenge
humans are facing.

As population grows, more food must be produced in order to feed them, and therefore more
water is being used. Today water coming from rainfall is not enough to satisfy the agriculture
demands, so humans are exploiting aquifer water reserves. This makes of water a limited
resource.

Moreover, as climate change advances, precipitation and evapotranspiration cycles are

changing, and their predictions are each day more difficult.

This is why, to ensure food security and a constant crop growing we need to apply new
technologies in the fields, so that we can fight all these challenges. Smart irrigation is
appearing as one of the solutions for this water scarcity problem that can seriously endanger
global food security.

Smart irrigation controllers and sensors have been developed to reduce outdoor water use by
irrigating based on plant water need compared to traditional automatic system timers, which
irrigate on a user-determined fixed schedule. This technology exists as a complete controller or
as a sensor that can be added to an existing irrigation timer to create a smart controller. Smart
irrigation technology uses weather data or soil moisture data to determine the irrigation need
of the landscape. Smart irrigation technology includes:

These technologies maximize irrigation efficiency by reducing water waste, while maintaining
plant health and quality. Incorporating smart irrigation technology in the landscape can
potentially reduce outdoor water consumption. This technology is appropriate for small,
residential landscapes as well as large, managed landscapes.
Hello everyone, we are Joseph Dylan Loardo and Leonardo Pérez de Morales and we are going
to talk about how a new technology like smart irrigation can solve a lot of problems related
with food insecurity all around the world.

In order to produce all the food that humanity requires, we have to make a good use of our
resources. Soils, fertilizers and water are essential. And is this last one in which we will be
focusing in this presentation.

The main goal of smart irrigation is to safe water. Nowadays, because of population continuous
growth and water demanding, as well as climate change, that is changing the precipitation and
evapotranspiration patterns, the wise use of water is essential.

So, smart irrigation is a technology that via sensors and controllers analyze data from the soil
and atmosphere in order to find out the water needs of the crops, so that we don’t put more
than necessary, and it ends in water waste. And now, my partner is going to explain you what
type of sensors this technology uses.