Smart and sustainable agriculture: Fundamentals, enabling technologies, and future directions

Agriculture is an important sector that plays a key role in the economic growth of countries. Innovative agricultural advancements has undoubtedly supported the expansion of the capacity and efficiency of different agricultural activities. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization assessment, the world's population is expected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030, and 9.6 billion by 2050 which will result in an unprecedented demand for food and agriculture products. It is estimated that the food production should increase by 70 percent to meet such a demand. Given the limited farming space, lack of water, climate change, and constantly changing environmental conditions, new and innovative smart agriculture solutions must be developed. In general, there has been an increase in the agricultural production volume over the time to ensure the food security. Efforts are being made to increase the quality and quantity of agribusiness products by transforming them into smart and connected products through a smart agriculture industry. Smart and precision agriculture refers to the integration of technology, such as the Internet of things, sensors, robotics, artificial intelligence, smart supply chains, big data analytics, and blockchain, into the agriculture industry. The Internet of things era is the umbrella that covers and enables the other technological tools. Smart technology integration can lead to a more productive and efficient agriculture via reducing the need for manual human interactions and making proactive intelligent decisions. This article aims at providing a survey on smart and sustainable agriculture focusing on its enabling technologies while providing future directions for improvement.

Automated summary

The growing global population will lead to an unprecedented demand for food and agriculture products. However, limited resources and changing environmental conditions necessitate the development of innovative smart agriculture solutions. Smart and precision agriculture, incorporating technologies such as IoT, sensors, and AI, can improve efficiency and quality in agricultural production. This article provides an overview of smart and sustainable agriculture, focusing on enabling technologies and future directions for improvement.