While growing up, I saw my grandfather spend hours tilling in the ground in the hot sun, with sweat rolling down his back and his cloth soaked with it, he would be doing that for hours using his hoe and cutlass at intervals. I grew up to see my father doing same as well, even though he was educated and even bagged a degree, he never owned a tractor or any machine, just his hands, we plant using our instincts and pray for rain, there's no precise weather reports, we just know the time of the year when theres bond to be rain.
I think I can say it was just guess work back then, no sure report, no weather forecast, so me thinking of nee innovations and what could mske life more easier, maybe mkre because of what have seen and the fact that I happen to study Agricultural Technology, I couldn't think if anything outside agriculture, and what I would be going for is.....AI-powered precision farming.
I would do well to try my best in telling you how this will work, as it will really help solve/answer a deep generational problem we are presently facing in Nigeria, as farming will now be predictable with AI-powered precision farming.
This innovation would be made available in form of smart sensors, now what would it do, this smart sensors would be designed in a way that it would be able to do a lot, it would be dipped down in the soil, and it will be able to read, monitor and scan a large portion of land, this smart sensor will br able to tell.....when the soil needs water, what nutrients are missing, when pests are approaching(even before the naked eye can see them), they would be able to tell what crop would do excellently well on each soil.
This would be like the soil itself can talk to the farmer, connected to a smartphone, it could come with certain tyoe of drones that woukd fly and scan the land for sick crops, pests and all and would only spray where needed. This way we won't waste seeds or fertilizers as this new innovation would tske care of that saying where it's needed and if it's enough. Also, the aim of this is to allow technology help not just those who are living large, but those who are working under the hot sun, with tired and cracked feet, who aren't even able to stand straight anymore.
This innovation will increase yield, bring hope, help connect the past to the future, and what does this mean, it means the farmer who's planting in Makurdi or Kwara can produce food with the same accuracy as someone in South Africa or Brazil. It would help bridge the gap between between poverty and prosperity.
AI powered farming obviously hasn鈥檛 reached everyone, many still don鈥檛 have access to smartphones, let alone drones. That鈥檚 why if I could create one more thing to make life easier, I would invent a small, solar-powered device that can be buried in the ground as well as it would be able to communicate to farmers in whatever language of their choice, controlled by a easy to use remote.
This device, like the first will be buried in the soil, it will measure.... moisture, pH, temperature and pest activities. It wouldn't require internet or a smartphone to work, it would just come with a simple, small speaker that would be able to speak in whatever language.
Come to think of it, if a local farmer in Ekiti hears the soil speaking to him in Yoruba saying the plants need some water, or that pest is almost invading his crops snd there's the need to attend to it before it starts affecting his crops...how cool and lovely would that be.
It would be designed to charge with the sun, it won't cost much and would be able to run for years, also it wouldn鈥檛 need an app to run, so far you can hear and understand your local language.
Sincerely, I believe this invention would change lives and not just livelihoods, it would help save our crops, help save harvests, help reduce hunger and also help build confidence in young people to see farming as power and not as, this innovation would give farmers thier own personal voice, rooted in science, smart but made for the bush/farm.
In conclusion, I believe innovation should just be about comfort or convenience but slso about impact. We should try remember those who grow the food we eat and make their works easier. Since the time I've seen my father till the soil with his hands to this very moment one thing is for sure and it is that the future of agriculture does not lie in the big muscles but it lies in th bigger minds, and the science/innovation/invention will take us all the way there.
All pictures are generated using AI.
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