Achieving Agriculture 4.0 Through Modernization and Enhancement with Mechanization, Automation and Advanced Technologies

Abstract

Food production must be greatly increased to support the world population, which is expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050. As a result, agriculture must be modernized and improved in order to significantly increase food productivity; unless otherwise, the 2nd United Nations Sustainable Development Goal, Zero Hunger, will be difficult to achieve. In addition to this, humans are also dealing with issues such as diminishing natural resources and lands, global warming, unpredictable weather patterns and the effects of coronavirus disease. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on agricultural food productivity, making food security a major concern around the world. Thus, the purpose of this work is to explore the possibility to enhance the existing practices in agricultural sector through the mechanization, automation and the application of advanced technologies, particularly the research works from Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) into the new era of Agriculture 4.0, which are adopting the Industry 4.0 (IR4.0) technologies to reduce the dependency of the labor force and the period of production and increase the productivity and food quality.