Many developing economies suffer from a lack of reliable rainfall measurements due to a lack of funds and a shortage of equipment – such as gauges and radars. Even if countries are equipped with these monitoring instruments, they all have limitations.
Could this be the year that meat grown in vats rather than taken from animals reaches our plates? In the summer of 2017, San Francisco-based food company Just (formerly Hampton Creek), announced plans to put meat grown in vats on the market by the end of 2018.
From the invention of hoes, scythes and ploughs to the introduction of tractors, innovation is at the heart of agriculture. Today, a number of digital technologies — from autonomous robots that pick fruit to subterranean farms — are helping transform the industry.
The world’s leading climate scientists have warned there is only a dozen years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, beyond which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.
A industrial revolution involving convergence of the physical, biological and digital) is under way.
Over the years, climate change has been disruptive to farmers, interfering with planting seasons, driving post-harvest losses up and causing livestock deaths and diseases as prolonged droughts and excess rainfall heavily toll on the many regions, especially those in Africa.
