Strategic Short Note: Appropriate Integration of Precision Agriculture Technology, IoT, and AI for Enhancing Southeast Asian Agriculture

Thailand has delivered a concept of the Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) economy as a growth strategy to achieve self-sufficiency and sustainability for the next society. The roles of agriculture in the future are therefore not only to sustain the food supply but also to provide bio-resources for upcoming activities taking place toward the BCG model. At the same time, the agricultural sector itself is necessarily developed according to the BCG way. Agricultural technology in Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries has been drastically developing during the few past decades. This resulted in the emergence of various innovations, new business models, and the attraction of younger generations to get into the area of agriculture. By targeting to production of high-value crops such as medicinal plants, smart greenhouse and plant factory technology have been widely adopted. The use of IoT in controlling planting conditions inside the greenhouse or plant factory has become common among crop growers. Some private companies in collaboration with researchers have been using Internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) for data analytics. Predictably, the number of start-up businesses or newcomers in this area will continue to increase in the foreseeable future. On the other side, in field crop production, precision agriculture technology has been increasingly adopted. Automatic systems that enhance farm machinery operation have been continuously developed. The use of multispectral imaging unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for crop growth monitoring and yield prediction has become common, especially with rice, sugarcane, cassava, coconut, and oil palm. Likewise, the use of UAVs for spraying and broadcasting has been commonly practiced, which in turn increased the number of service providers. Technology and innovation will compensate for the decline of the farmer and labor population and provide business opportunities. Future challenges include making agricultural production activities more data-driven and making interpretation and management precise while sustaining the environment and resources.