• Home
  • About RSIS
    • Introduction
    • Building the Foundations
    • Welcome Message
    • Board of Governors
    • Staff Profiles
      • Executive Deputy Chairman’s Office
      • Dean’s Office
      • Management
      • Distinguished Fellows
      • Faculty and Research
      • Associate Research Fellows, Senior Analysts and Research Analysts
      • Visiting Fellows
      • Adjunct Fellows
      • Administrative Staff
    • Honours and Awards for RSIS Staff and Students
    • RSIS Endowment Fund
    • Endowed Professorships
    • Career Opportunities
    • Getting to RSIS
  • Research
    • Research Centres
      • Centre for Multilateralism Studies (CMS)
      • Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS Centre)
      • Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS)
      • Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS)
      • International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR)
    • Research Programmes
      • National Security Studies Programme (NSSP)
      • Studies in Inter-Religious Relations in Plural Societies (SRP) Programme
    • Future Issues and Technology Cluster
    • [email protected] Newsletter
    • Other Research
      • Science and Technology Studies Programme (STSP) (2017-2020)
  • Graduate Education
    • Graduate Programmes Office
    • Overview
    • MSc (Asian Studies)
    • MSc (International Political Economy)
    • MSc (International Relations)
    • MSc (Strategic Studies)
    • NTU-Warwick Double Masters Programme
    • PhD Programme
    • Exchange Partners and Programmes
    • How to Apply
    • Financial Assistance
    • Meet the Admissions Team: Information Sessions and other events
    • RSIS Alumni
  • Alumni & Networks
    • Alumni
    • Asia-Pacific Programme for Senior Military Officers (APPSMO)
    • Asia-Pacific Programme for Senior National Security Officers (APPSNO)
    • International Strategy Forum-Asia (ISF-Asia)
    • SRP Executive Programme
    • Terrorism Analyst Training Course (TATC)
  • Publications
    • RSIS Publications
      • Annual Reviews
      • Books
      • Bulletins and Newsletters
      • Commentaries
      • Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses
      • Commemorative / Event Reports
      • IDSS Paper
      • Interreligious Relations
      • Monographs
      • NTS Insight
      • Policy Reports
      • Working Papers
      • RSIS Publications for the Year
    • Glossary of Abbreviations
    • External Publications
      • Authored Books
      • Journal Articles
      • Edited Books
      • Chapters in Edited Books
      • Policy Reports
      • Working Papers
      • Op-Eds
      • External Publications for the Year
    • Policy-relevant Articles Given RSIS Award
  • Media
    • Great Powers
    • Sustainable Security
    • Other Resource Pages
    • Media Highlights
    • News Releases
    • Speeches
    • Vidcast Channel
    • Audio/Video Forums
  • Events
  • Giving
  • Contact Us
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
RSISVideoCast RSISVideoCast rsis.sg
Linkedin
instagram instagram rsis.sg
RSS
  • Home
  • About RSIS
      • Introduction
      • Building the Foundations
      • Welcome Message
      • Board of Governors
      • Staff Profiles
        • Executive Deputy Chairman’s Office
        • Dean’s Office
        • Management
        • Distinguished Fellows
        • Faculty and Research
        • Associate Research Fellows, Senior Analysts and Research Analysts
        • Visiting Fellows
        • Adjunct Fellows
        • Administrative Staff
      • Honours and Awards for RSIS Staff and Students
      • RSIS Endowment Fund
      • Endowed Professorships
      • Career Opportunities
      • Getting to RSIS
  • Research
      • Research Centres
        • Centre for Multilateralism Studies (CMS)
        • Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS Centre)
        • Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS)
        • Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS)
        • International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR)
      • Research Programmes
        • National Security Studies Programme (NSSP)
        • Studies in Inter-Religious Relations in Plural Societies (SRP) Programme
      • Future Issues and Technology Cluster
      • [email protected] Newsletter
      • Other Research
        • Science and Technology Studies Programme (STSP) (2017-2020)
  • Graduate Education
      • Graduate Programmes Office
      • Overview
      • MSc (Asian Studies)
      • MSc (International Political Economy)
      • MSc (International Relations)
      • MSc (Strategic Studies)
      • NTU-Warwick Double Masters Programme
      • PhD Programme
      • Exchange Partners and Programmes
      • How to Apply
      • Financial Assistance
      • Meet the Admissions Team: Information Sessions and other events
      • RSIS Alumni
  • Alumni & Networks
      • Alumni
      • Asia-Pacific Programme for Senior Military Officers (APPSMO)
      • Asia-Pacific Programme for Senior National Security Officers (APPSNO)
      • International Strategy Forum-Asia (ISF-Asia)
      • SRP Executive Programme
      • Terrorism Analyst Training Course (TATC)
  • Publications
      • RSIS Publications
        • Annual Reviews
        • Books
        • Bulletins and Newsletters
        • Commentaries
        • Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses
        • Commemorative / Event Reports
        • IDSS Paper
        • Interreligious Relations
        • Monographs
        • NTS Insight
        • Policy Reports
        • Working Papers
        • RSIS Publications for the Year
      • Glossary of Abbreviations
      • External Publications
        • Authored Books
        • Journal Articles
        • Edited Books
        • Chapters in Edited Books
        • Policy Reports
        • Working Papers
        • Op-Eds
        • External Publications for the Year
      • Policy-relevant Articles Given RSIS Award
  • Media
      • Great Powers
      • Sustainable Security
      • Other Resource Pages
      • Media Highlights
      • News Releases
      • Speeches
      • Vidcast Channel
      • Audio/Video Forums
  • Events
  • Giving
  • Contact Us
  • instagram instagram rsis.sg
Connect

Getting to RSIS

Map

Address

Nanyang Technological University
Block S4, Level B3,
50 Nanyang Avenue,
Singapore 639798

View location on Google maps Click here for directions to RSIS

Get in Touch

    Connect with Us

      rsis.ntu
      rsis_ntu
      rsisntu
    RSISVideoCast RSISVideoCast rsisvideocast
      school/rsis-ntu
    instagram instagram rsis.sg
      RSS
    Subscribe to RSIS Publications
    Subscribe to RSIS Events

    RSIS Intranet

    S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies Think Tank and Graduate School Ponder The Improbable Since 1966
    Nanyang Technological University Nanyang Technological University

    Skip to content

     
    • RSIS
    • Publication
    • RSIS Publications
    • CO17124 | Knowledge Intensive Agriculture: The New Disruptor in World Food?
    • Annual Reviews
    • Books
    • Bulletins and Newsletters
    • Commentaries
    • Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses
    • Commemorative / Event Reports
    • IDSS Paper
    • Interreligious Relations
    • Monographs
    • NTS Insight
    • Policy Reports
    • Working Papers
    • RSIS Publications for the Year

    CO17124 | Knowledge Intensive Agriculture: The New Disruptor in World Food?
    Paul Teng

    23 June 2017

    download pdf
    RSIS Commentary is a platform to provide timely and, where appropriate, policy-relevant commentary and analysis of topical and contemporary issues. The authors’ views are their own and do not represent the official position of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), NTU. These commentaries may be reproduced with prior permission from RSIS and due credit to the author(s) and RSIS. Please email to Editor RSIS Commentary at [email protected].

    Synopsis

    New digital media are fast becoming available to convey new technology and new knowledge to farmers. Agricultural technology (“agtech”) and new financing modalities (“fintech”) have great potential to meet the needs for increasing agricultural production globally. Knowledge intensive agriculture (KIA) is increasingly becoming the next big disruptive innovation.

    Commentary

    MODERN FARMING depends on technology such as seed, fertiliser, pesticides, water, and machinery. These have formed the basis of the world’s food production systems for staples. However, it has become increasingly clear to scientists, policymakers and development agencies that physical inputs alone did not guarantee that farmers can make best use of these inputs. Knowledge is required to make farms productive, farming practices efficient, and farm productivity more targeted.

    At the same time, information-communication technology (ICT) has also increasingly affected the farming community. ICT is increasingly recognised as the means to capture and share knowledge and in the process, improve the efficiency of using production inputs. For farming, a major challenge has been how to empower all farmers with the knowledge to use inputs effectively. Agricultural technology (agtech) together with new digital knowledge capture techniques and new financial technology (fintech) groups is fast changing farming by creating a new knowledge intensive agriculture.

    Making Technology Knowledge Intensive

    In recognition of this phenomenon, the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines, convened a workshop on 15-16 June 2017 to enable exchange of experience and ideas on how to design and implement knowledge intensive agriculture among the more than 300 million small farmers in Asia. Smallholder farmers remain the foundation for Asia’s food security. These small farmers were responsible for using the first set of “disruptive innovations” in the 1960s, such as high yielding crop seeds, fertiliser and pesticides to significantly increase food supplies. However, the large, disparate smallholder population in Asia is geographically spread out and farmers work in diverse farming situations. Each farmer in effect practises farming in his/her own way based on knowledge either newly learnt or inherited.

    The recent report on “The Future of Food and Agriculture” by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) highlighted the urgent task of assuring the world can meet the 50% increase in demand for food by 2050. So it is important not only to ensure smallholders have access to farming inputs, but also that they have the knowledge to use the inputs effectively.

    Apart from the above, the new impetus for KIA is the increase in myriad tools to practise “data enabled agriculture” – environment sensors, mobile computing, satellites and imaging, drones, wireless communication and even genetics. The growth of knowledge in digital form, AND the increasing capacity of small farmers to access digital information provide opportunities not possible before to share timely information on farming environments and the required management knowledge.

    With knowledge, physical inputs and technology, KIA democratises the sharing of knowledge. It also has the added attraction of luring millennials and other new entrants into agriculture at a time when almost all countries are faced with the twin problems of an ageing and declining farming population.

    Agtech and Fintech as New Economic Sectors

    Two new words, “agtech” and “fintech” have crept into the discourse on modern farming. But are these “old wine in new bottles” or are they truly “new wine in new bottles”? Admittedly the growth in KIA offers opportunities for new technologies, new physical inputs and new financial mechanisms to ensure these become socialized
    into the farming sector.

    Agtech collectively means the individual technologies or a combination of technologies related to farm equipment, weather, seed optimisation, fertilizer and crop inputs, irrigation, remote sensing (including drones), farm management, and agricultural big data. Agtech has gained widespread attention and considerable investment, with one pioneering company, AgFunder estimating that in 2014 and 2015 alone, investments totalled US$7 billion.

    Urban farming is one sub-sector that has seen some “new wine” in the form of indoor farms using fully integrated technology for growing vegetables in controlled environments of artificial light, temperature, carbon dioxide, water and fertilizer. In Singapore, PANASONIC has delivered such high tech vegetables to supermarkets. Korea and Japan together have over a hundred indoor high tech farms. South Korea even has a government agency to provide oversight and promote agtech.

    Fintech includes companies that use new technology to provide financial services for innovations in farming. Fintech companies consist of both new as well as established financial companies. Industry monitoring gives estimates of billions of dollars of fintech investments, with Europe leading the way. But it is the synergy of agtech and fintech that is causing great excitement for KIA.

    New fintech entities will either bypass or complement traditional financial and technology players such as development banks and multi-national companies as the main suppliers of physical technologies and knowledge to small farmers. Countries with active financial centres coupled with proper governance such as intellectual
    property protection for new technology, will find that the changed landscape provides many opportunities to create new avenues of economic growth. An example is Singapore.

    Knowledge Intensive Agriculture as Disruptive Innovation

    Historically, farming has seen many disruptive innovations, such as hybrid corn in the 1920s, biotech crops in 1996, and now digital agricultural technologies and genome edited crops and animals in the 2010s. And, as the ADB Workshop noted, KIA has potential to become the latest and most impactful game-changer because it “connects the dots” to link technology, knowledge, the farmer and the financier. The same FAO Report cited above also proposed that new investments and new technologies are needed to meet the 50% increase in food demand by 2050, and to
    do so will require $265 million per year in investment. It is unlikely that all this investment will be met by governments, pointing further to an important complementation role of fintech companies.

    A further recognition of the important role that new technologies will play in the future is its inclusion as one of the four sessions in the upcoming World Agricultural Forum to be held in Singapore, on 6-7 July 2017. This event will see key industry players share their assessment of its role in agriculture, global food trade and security.

    About the Author

    Paul Teng is Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University. He formerly held leadership positions at The WorldFish Centre, The International Rice Research Institute and Monsanto Company. This is the first in a series on the upcoming World Agricultural Forum (WAF) organised jointly with the S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

    Categories: Commentaries / Country and Region Studies / Non-Traditional Security / East Asia and Asia Pacific / Global / Southeast Asia and ASEAN

    Last updated on 03/08/2017

    comments powered by Disqus
    RSIS Commentary is a platform to provide timely and, where appropriate, policy-relevant commentary and analysis of topical and contemporary issues. The authors’ views are their own and do not represent the official position of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), NTU. These commentaries may be reproduced with prior permission from RSIS and due credit to the author(s) and RSIS. Please email to Editor RSIS Commentary at [email protected].

    Synopsis

    New digital media are fast becoming available to convey new technology and new knowledge to farmers. Agricultural technology (“agtech”) and new financing modalities (“fintech”) have great potential to meet the needs for increasing agricultural production globally. Knowledge intensive agriculture (KIA) is increasingly becoming the next big disruptive innovation.

    Commentary

    MODERN FARMING depends on technology such as seed, fertiliser, pesticides, water, and machinery. These have formed the basis of the world’s food production systems for staples. However, it has become increasingly clear to scientists, policymakers and development agencies that physical inputs alone did not guarantee that farmers can make best use of these inputs. Knowledge is required to make farms productive, farming practices efficient, and farm productivity more targeted.

    At the same time, information-communication technology (ICT) has also increasingly affected the farming community. ICT is increasingly recognised as the means to capture and share knowledge and in the process, improve the efficiency of using production inputs. For farming, a major challenge has been how to empower all farmers with the knowledge to use inputs effectively. Agricultural technology (agtech) together with new digital knowledge capture techniques and new financial technology (fintech) groups is fast changing farming by creating a new knowledge intensive agriculture.

    Making Technology Knowledge Intensive

    In recognition of this phenomenon, the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines, convened a workshop on 15-16 June 2017 to enable exchange of experience and ideas on how to design and implement knowledge intensive agriculture among the more than 300 million small farmers in Asia. Smallholder farmers remain the foundation for Asia’s food security. These small farmers were responsible for using the first set of “disruptive innovations” in the 1960s, such as high yielding crop seeds, fertiliser and pesticides to significantly increase food supplies. However, the large, disparate smallholder population in Asia is geographically spread out and farmers work in diverse farming situations. Each farmer in effect practises farming in his/her own way based on knowledge either newly learnt or inherited.

    The recent report on “The Future of Food and Agriculture” by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) highlighted the urgent task of assuring the world can meet the 50% increase in demand for food by 2050. So it is important not only to ensure smallholders have access to farming inputs, but also that they have the knowledge to use the inputs effectively.

    Apart from the above, the new impetus for KIA is the increase in myriad tools to practise “data enabled agriculture” – environment sensors, mobile computing, satellites and imaging, drones, wireless communication and even genetics. The growth of knowledge in digital form, AND the increasing capacity of small farmers to access digital information provide opportunities not possible before to share timely information on farming environments and the required management knowledge.

    With knowledge, physical inputs and technology, KIA democratises the sharing of knowledge. It also has the added attraction of luring millennials and other new entrants into agriculture at a time when almost all countries are faced with the twin problems of an ageing and declining farming population.

    Agtech and Fintech as New Economic Sectors

    Two new words, “agtech” and “fintech” have crept into the discourse on modern farming. But are these “old wine in new bottles” or are they truly “new wine in new bottles”? Admittedly the growth in KIA offers opportunities for new technologies, new physical inputs and new financial mechanisms to ensure these become socialized
    into the farming sector.

    Agtech collectively means the individual technologies or a combination of technologies related to farm equipment, weather, seed optimisation, fertilizer and crop inputs, irrigation, remote sensing (including drones), farm management, and agricultural big data. Agtech has gained widespread attention and considerable investment, with one pioneering company, AgFunder estimating that in 2014 and 2015 alone, investments totalled US$7 billion.

    Urban farming is one sub-sector that has seen some “new wine” in the form of indoor farms using fully integrated technology for growing vegetables in controlled environments of artificial light, temperature, carbon dioxide, water and fertilizer. In Singapore, PANASONIC has delivered such high tech vegetables to supermarkets. Korea and Japan together have over a hundred indoor high tech farms. South Korea even has a government agency to provide oversight and promote agtech.

    Fintech includes companies that use new technology to provide financial services for innovations in farming. Fintech companies consist of both new as well as established financial companies. Industry monitoring gives estimates of billions of dollars of fintech investments, with Europe leading the way. But it is the synergy of agtech and fintech that is causing great excitement for KIA.

    New fintech entities will either bypass or complement traditional financial and technology players such as development banks and multi-national companies as the main suppliers of physical technologies and knowledge to small farmers. Countries with active financial centres coupled with proper governance such as intellectual
    property protection for new technology, will find that the changed landscape provides many opportunities to create new avenues of economic growth. An example is Singapore.

    Knowledge Intensive Agriculture as Disruptive Innovation

    Historically, farming has seen many disruptive innovations, such as hybrid corn in the 1920s, biotech crops in 1996, and now digital agricultural technologies and genome edited crops and animals in the 2010s. And, as the ADB Workshop noted, KIA has potential to become the latest and most impactful game-changer because it “connects the dots” to link technology, knowledge, the farmer and the financier. The same FAO Report cited above also proposed that new investments and new technologies are needed to meet the 50% increase in food demand by 2050, and to
    do so will require $265 million per year in investment. It is unlikely that all this investment will be met by governments, pointing further to an important complementation role of fintech companies.

    A further recognition of the important role that new technologies will play in the future is its inclusion as one of the four sessions in the upcoming World Agricultural Forum to be held in Singapore, on 6-7 July 2017. This event will see key industry players share their assessment of its role in agriculture, global food trade and security.

    About the Author

    Paul Teng is Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University. He formerly held leadership positions at The WorldFish Centre, The International Rice Research Institute and Monsanto Company. This is the first in a series on the upcoming World Agricultural Forum (WAF) organised jointly with the S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

    Categories: Commentaries / Country and Region Studies / Non-Traditional Security

    Last updated on 03/08/2017

    Back to top

    Terms of Use | Privacy Statement
    Copyright © S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. All rights reserved.
    This site uses cookies to offer you a better browsing experience. By continuing, you are agreeing to the use of cookies on your device as described in our privacy policy. Learn more
    OK
    Latest Book
    CO17124 | Knowledge Intensive Agriculture: The New Disruptor in World Food?

    Synopsis

    New digital media are fast becoming available to convey new technology and new knowledge to farmers. Agricultural technology (“agtech”) and new financi ...
    more info