World Food Day 2021: Mindful Eating for the Body and the Planet.

The United Nations Organization celebrates World Food Day on 16^th October, every year, to commemorate the founding of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) as well as raise awareness about the many issues concerned with the production, distribution and consumption of food. World Food Day 2021 is based on the theme: Our Actions are our Future.

The impact of agri-food systems on our health as well as our environment is multifold.  Eating Healthy is not the only mantra we need to focus on for a bright future; it should also be, eating responsibly and ethically.

How do our actions affect our future?

Firstly, the agri-food industry is faced with the mammoth task of providing enough to eat for the increasing human population. To increase productivity, many farmers resort to unethical practices like usage of harsh chemicals in pesticides and fertilizers. Land and water resources are also highly abused to increase productivity as well as profitability of agribusinesses. Therefore, our primary concern as responsible citizens of the world is to ensure that the food we consume is safe.

Secondly, a large amount of the food that is produced goes to waste even before it reaches the hands of the consumers. Mindless wastage of produce contributes to environmental problems as well as raises the cost of production. This could stem from improper planning as well as from lack of adequate infrastructure to transport and store food. The amount of food wasted around the world is enough to feed its hungry population, several times over.

Thirdly, there is a rise in the number of people who go hungry in the world. Hence the most important and humane responsibility that we have about our future is to ensure that nobody goes hungry for food on our planet.

Therefore, three important aspects of the future of our food is determined by us today, namely,

• Food Safety

• Food Security

• Food Waste Reduction

These three aspects of the agri-food system are closely linked to each other and the future food system is highly dependent on taking wise actions NOW.

As in all areas of human growth, the answer to solving these problems are provided by technology. The development in science and technology has provided us with tools that can be used to improve the working of our food system, like,

• Planning: Planning plays a big part in ensuring there is enough food for all. If we can consolidate the requirements and the production trend, the Government can incentivize more production of what is going to fall short. Moreover, the Government can also plan on moving surplus produce to pockets of deficit. Through proper planning this can be accomplished without transit losses and the need to store the produce unnecessarily for long.

• Blockchain technology– This is a tool that assures complete transparency of processes that goes into production on a farm or agribusiness and its movement through the entire length of the supply chain. Blockchain technology can be used to ensure that the process and information are transparent and authentic.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)– AI is a tool that mimics human intelligence without its shortcomings and can be used to optimize the workings of a farm. AI enabled robots and machinery can be used to make agriculture more efficient and to produce more with the same resources

• Machine Learning (ML)– Machine Learning is a software algorithm that gets better at making decisions with more experience. It can analyze large amounts of data and optimize the entire set of activities from production to the end consumer. ML can also be used to identify the best way to store and transport produce to keep it from perishing over longer periods of time.

• High yielding variety of Seeds– crop genetics can be carefully analyzed to identify the best variety of crop suitable for the locality in terms of climate, soil and availability of other resources, thus, increasing productivity.

A Farm Management Software (FMS) is a great tool that can be used by the stakeholders to optimize the agri-food. It can help you plan and implement your farming activities to maximize the yield at lowest possible costs.

Trace AgTech is an intuitive and feature rich farm management software that will integrate all of your contract farms and farmers on a single platform. It helps you in digitizing farm diaries, geo-fencing farms, pest/disease control, real-time support to farmers, expense tracking, yield forecasting, buying, quality control, farm audits, traceability, sustainability, training master trainers (TOT) & farmers, monitoring & managing field staff, etc.