PRE2018 3 Group16

Group members

Edwin Steenkamer	1006712
Sjir Schielen	1024154
Thijs Conner	1011148
Tobin van den Hurk	1009573
Tom Verberk	1016472

Subject

The environmental challenges in Africa, which are only increasing in difficulty due to, among other things, the consequences of global warming, are a real concern for the food production in this area. As a consequence, independent and poor small-scale farmers and small villages living of agriculture across Africa may struggle to sustain themselves. Since the agricultral sector makes up a large part of the Sub-Saharan labor market, every improvement made in this area will significantly benefit a great part of the African population. However, the lack of proper education and the misuse of technology in these agricultural areas hinders the development of efficient food production. A low budget, self-providing, agricultural system which can identify problems and assist the farmers in maximizing their food produce, while simultaneously minimizing the cost of resources, could help these farmers sustain themselves with more ease, leading to more opportunities for the long-anticipated urbanization of Sub-Saharan Africa to take off.

Objectives

The objective is to design a robot that satisfies the following requirements. The robot should help small-scale farmers to be self-providing and independent without negative consequences. Considering that funding is a difficult aspect, the robot has to be designed with a low budget. An optimization has to be found between maximizing food production and minimizing the required resources and costs.

Milestones

• Summarize at least 7 scientific articles each
• Current situation sketch
• Determine & discuss possibilities for improvement of current situation
• Cost analysis
• (Low-level) System design
• Example scenarios

Approach

For this project, an initial literature study is required. By exploring the subject in a top-down fashion, the main focus of the project can be adjusted. In other words, gathering information on the broad topic of farming in sub-optimal conditions in general, allows for the project to delve deeper into the aspects of farming deemed most important. Using this method instead of starting with a focus on a specific problem regarding farming, eliminates the threat of discovering this specific problem is not as interesting or important as expected. Another benefit of starting with an extensive research on the state-of-the-art, is that the amount of assumptions is expected to be limited. This allows for more grounded arguments and reasoning as to why certain aspects are deemed more important.

Deliverables

This project will ultimately consist of

• A literature study on automated farming
• In-depth analysis on yet to be specified topics, exploring their possibilities
• A design for automated farming in hot and arid conditions

Planning

The planning can be viewed by following this link.

Role division

The role division, or 'who will do what' section, is likely to change over time, because newly obtained knowledge can steer the project in a (slightly) different direction. As of now, the following role division is made:

Edwin focuses on the state-of-the-art and the users requirements that the design should satisfy.

Sjir does research on water management and livestock and specifies the requirements the design should satisfy with respect to water management and livestock.

Thijs and Tobin do research on what measurements should be performed and how they should be performed. They also specify the requirements with respect to measurements and perform a cost analysis.

Tom does research on and specifies design requirements on water management and irrigation. He also does a cost analysis.

A completer role division is listed in the planning. There is some overlap in the tasks that are carried out, which is done on purpose to create room for discussion on the requirements.

Users

The users of the technology can be divided into primary, secondary and tertiary users. The primary users are small based farmers that live in conditions which are suboptimal for agriculture. These conditions are mainly found in drought-prone areas of Africa, such as the areas in or around deserts. As primary users, the artifact or technology is directly aimed to be of use to this group.

Secondary users are the people in nearby villages that benefit from a more consistent food supply. They benefit from the available food through the farmer's use of the artifact. Bigger farmer organizations (or collectives/unions) are also considered secondary users, as they benefit from higher production caused by the farmer's use of the artifact. Larger scale farmers may also use the technology, although it was intended for small scale farmers. Larger scale farmers are therefore considered secondary users.

The tertiary user is society as a whole. If food production increases it will benefit society. Society as a whole is not using the artifact, but it benefits from a more efficient use in water for agriculture through the increased production. As the artifact is aimed to increase the efficiency in the use of water, it is projected that more food becomes available. This is likely to cause economic growth in these developing areas, which makes it attractive to investors. Therefore, investors can also be seen as a tertiary user.

User Requirements

The technology requires a source of energy. As the energy infrastructure in Africa is underdeveloped to non-existent in certain areas, this forms a problem. In, for example, Sub-Saharan Africa, only an estimated 31% of all inhabitants have access to electricity [15]. Access to electricity is usually in towns or cities, which is not where the farmer has his piece of land. This means that the users require the technology to generate its own needed energy or to work on fuel.

The scarcity of water is the main reason behind this artifact. Water is very valuable in areas prone to drought and the sad reality is that it literally is a matter of life and death. Therefore the artifact must be efficient with water. This means that it should catch as much water as possible and store it while keeping losses at a minimum.

Although the technology is primarily aimed to be used for crops, it is unlikely that it will be the only use. If drought strikes and there is water available in the storage tank, people will use it for consumption. Even if it is explicitly clarified that it is no drinking water, to the people it is still better than no water at all. Therefore it is required that the storage tank keeps the water clean to a certain degree. This induces more difficulty in the design of the artifact which was not projected at first, but it does make the artifact more user oriented.

Former automation solutions have failed due to the weak state of the economy in these developing countries. Farmers live off the harvest rather than the profit they receive from selling their crops. This means that no jobs should be replaced by the artifact, which is vital for it to be adopted in the first place. The farmers will not use technology that replaces their jobs, therefore it is important that the artifact performs a task that no farmer can do. The system collects, stores and irrigates water, which are tasks that farmers cannot do themselves.

The artifact is aimed to help the farmer with water management. It is projected to perform this task autonomously, but in the end the farmer should have full control. In the case of a severe drought, if the water is required for drinking, the farmer should have access to the storage tank. Therefore the farmer should be able to intervene with the autonomous way of operation on request. The farmer should be able to understand how to interact with the artifact in the desired way. Therefore, it should be understandable. When specifying the system requirements, it should be taken into account that illiteracy rates are globally the highest in the underdeveloped parts of Africa, which is the same area in which the artifact is projected to operate.

A requirement that is applicable to all users and non-users of the artifact, is that the artifact’s greenhouse gas emissions should be as low as possible. This requirement becomes more and more important as the effects of climate change begin to show. It is especially important for the farmers in drought-prone areas as they live in areas which are expected to be heavily affected by climate change.

State-of-the-art

Agriculture is one of the biggest sectors we have in this world. Without food, we would not be able to live on this planet. Since we focus on small-scale farmers we divided our research into different subjects we thought we needed to find out more about to get a better picture of how we could help small-scale farmers.

The best ways to provide energy to systems implemented on a farm.

Energy production is vital to the development of Africa. Currently only an estimated 31% of the whole population in Sub-Saharan Africa has access to electricity, whereas about 80% of the energy consumption is still accounted for by traditional biomass energy. An increase in energy consumption is needed for Sub-Saharan Africa to develop. Climate changes poses a threat to the already vulnerable agricultural sector of Sub-Saharan Africa. Energy sources other than biomass with low carbon emissions are needed to improve the agriculture in these fragile environments. The lack of funding is the major problem and as the globe warms, time is of the essence [15]. Sub-Saharan Africa offers conditions that may be beneficial for energy production. The area receives solar radiation with an intensity that is among the highest on the planet. The now commercially available technology concentrating solar power (CSP) is a candidate technology which, with the right investments, can generate a lot of power in North Africa [32]. There are possibilities for large scale energy production in this area, which may benefit other parts of the world as well, but the main problem remains funding.

How does livestock and vegetation affect (and benefit) each other.

There are theoretical benefits to the interaction between crops and livestock. Livestock can be used for physical labour on the land and manure can fertilize the soil. In Sub-Saharan Africa, however, this concept is not well integrated. The concept is not applied through the availability of information, but through environmental differences [25]. Another theory suggests that households in Sub-Saharan Africa use livestock as a buffer stock to insulate their consumption from income fluctuations. As the problems of engaging in rainfed agriculture are inevitable in a drought-prone area, it is often assumed that livestock form a buffer for the dry season. Results indicate that livestock transactions play less of a consumption smoothing role than often assumed. One can conclude that there are better ways to manage agriculture [13]. Another problem is that most livestock was introduced to Africa through trade with Europe and the Middle-East, hence the animals are less adapted to the extreme conditions [19]. The use of different animals as livestock may benefit the harsh areas. It is, however, important to analyze how effective species are with water. A way to do this is by the concept of livestock water productivity (LWP) [10]. LWP is defined as the ratio between the sum of all net livestock products and services and the sum of all depleted/ degraded water. It assigns a numerical value with the unit dollar per cubic meter of water. By using this concept a numerical problem can be formulated that allows optimization. This approach does, however, rely on available information and it is estimate based.

Methods of Soil sampling and analysis.

Soil consists of many different kind of elements which can have an effect on the crop growth. To measure these elements soil sampling and analysis has to be done. Different analysis methods are needed for different elements such as chemical, biological, organic matter, physical and water analyses [6] [17] [24]. The effectiveness of these tests, for a low budget and uneducated farmer, are dependant on the ease of use and low-cost equipment. Investigating new and improved ideas of how to measure specific elements may help in choosing the right tests [33] [35] [20]. In case of putting these sensors on a robot an assessment also has to be made about the effectiveness of different kind of agricultural robots [26].

Soil analysis and degradation.

Not just the drought, but rather soil degradation combined with the rapid increase in population in developing areas such as Sub-Saharan Africa, will pose a major threat for food production in the near future[31]. To combat this degradation, adequate measures should be applied. Measuring the soil composition at different locations in a single field, will give more insight in the so-called micro-variabilities[5]. These measurements can be used to more efficiently water, manure, and weed crops, which has proven to be more effective than simply introducing new techniques or machinery[4].

Obstacles for small scale farmers in poor countries.

The demand for food products for export markets is increasing severely in developing countries . But most of the small-scale farmers in those countries have difficulties profiting from this increasing demand. This article[12] gives a few problems small-scale farmers are having including pesticide use and poor storage facilities. To improve these farmers need technology, but to choose which technology is needed and then actually integrate this technology is easier said than done[14]. The conclusion is that a combination of lack of knowledge, resources, and technology is the reason small-scale farmers are having trouble to increase their production and make their farm more efficient[9].

Technology that is used in agriculture in industrialized countries.

Nowadays technology is having a massive impact on agriculture, especially in industrialized countries. A great example of this is precision farming. This type of farming uses wireless network systems (WNSs) to make sure every plant or animal gets a very precise treatment[7]. Other examples of smart farming is given in these articles[16][18]. The first article describes a system that can measure physical parameters of the soil that play a vital role in farming activities and the second article describes a system that can reduce the amount of water used by implementing a soil moisture sensor to automate the water sprinkler.

Sources SotA

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[12] Dinham, B. (2003). Growing vegetables in developing countries for local urban populations and export markets: problems confronting small-scale producers. Retrieved February 13, 2019, from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ps.654

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[16] Ivanov, S., Bhargava, K., & Donnelly, W. (2015, July 14). Precision Farming: Sensor Analytics - [Journal]. Retrieved February 13, 2019, from https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7156034

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[18] Kamelia, L. (2018). Implementation of Automation System for Humidity Monitoring and Irrigation System. Retrieved February 13, 2019, from https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/288/1/012092/pdf

[19] Kay, R. N. B. (1997, December). Responses of African livestock and wild herbivores to drought [Journal, pages 683-694]. Retrieved February 13, 2019, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140196397902998
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[30] Strauch, A. M., Kapust, A. R., & Jost, C. C. (2009, September). Impact of livestock management on water quality and streambank structure in a semi-arid, African ecosystem [Book, pages 795-803]. Retrieved February 13, 2019, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140196309000962
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[32] Ummel, K., & Wheeler, D. (2008, December). Desert Power: The Economics of Solar Thermal Electricity for Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Retrieved February 13, 2019, from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1321842

[33] Viscarra Rossel, R. A., Cattle, S. R., Ortega, A., & Fouad, Y. (2009, May 15). In situ measurements of soil colour, mineral composition and clay content by vis-NIR spectroscopy. Retrieved February 13, 2019, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016706109000408

[34] Wang, H., Wang, T., Zhang, B., Li, F., Toure, B., Omosa, I., . . . Pradhan, M. (2013, September 30). Water and Wastewater Treatment in AFrica- Current Practices and Challenges. Retrieved February 13, 2019, from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/clen.201300208

[35] Widmer, F., Fliessbach, A., Laczkó, E., Schulze-Aurich, J., & Zeyer, J. (2001, June). Assessing soil biological characteristics: a comparison of bulk soil community DNA-, PFLA-, and Biologtm_analyses [Book, pages 1029-1036]. Retrieved February 13, 2019, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038071701000062

Scientific papers

The summaries of the scientific papers which have been read can be found here