ABSTRACT
The increasing world population will continue to place demands on the agricultural production system to produce increasing amounts of food for the foreseeable future to feed a population that is likely to exceed 9 billion people by 2050 (United States Census Bureau, n.d.). The growth in population towards 9 billion will be accompanied by a decrease in the amount of land available for agricultural production because of the increased space required by people for cities and associated infrastructure, for example roads, reservoirs, water treatment plants and so on. A relatively simple analysis of these two facts would lead to the conclusion that food production will have to become more efficient (i.e. more food produced on similar or less land resource) to meet the expected population demand. To add to the complexity of this problem, there is the possibility of climate change associated with a potential increase in the variability of precipitation, which could dramatically alter the reliability of critical components in crop production (Hatfield et al., 2011). If we couple the increasing human population with a declining available soil resource (Lal, 1997) and more variable precipitation (Karl et al., 2009), then the urgency to be able to address this problem and provide solutions for agriculture intensifies. One of the questions to be asked is what role precision agriculture could potentially have in contributing to increased and improved food production to achieve food security. Food security as defined by FAO is ‘a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life’ (FAO, 2002). If we link this definition with agriculture then understanding the limitations to crop production and the role of precision agriculture to address these problems, we begin to develop potential solutions to ensure food security for future generations.
