THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW: PRECISION AGRICULTURE AND THE DROUGHT

The world is under a big threat of natural disasters related to warming. Making a presentation at the bi-monthly convocation at Carnegie Mellon University, John Heinz School, Australia Campus, the Executive Director Timothy J. Zak, analyzed the current situation of global economy and social prosperity. Tim provided detailed map and statistical data on how the global wealth is distributed with comparison between the most privileged and underprivileged regions of the world. Statistics indicated that about 85% of global wealth is accumulated in the developing countries with less than a quarter of the population estimated at 6.5 billion. Only 15% is appropriated by the rest of the population mainly found in the developing countries which were marked in the maps by a red color. At the worse of it comes the climate change. Developing countries are expected to be disproportionately impacted by changes in sea level, warming temperatures, stresses on forest and agricultural systems, and increased climate variability (The WorldBank). This is due to low mitigation and adaptive capacity including low technology and poor infrastructure. The simulated effect of global warming is well presented in the movie “The Day After Tomorrow”. The movie is very much emotive showing how the earth can respond to our environment insensitivity and dishonesty.

One of the effects of global warming in tropical countries is drought. This effect is expected to increase vulnerability of about 80% of people in developing countries who depend on rain-fed agriculture for their livelihood. While irrigation is the main focus of the most developing countries, the major challenge will be how to make it efficient under decreasing water resources [1, 2]. Small micro-projects involving the use of precision agriculture would be one of the alternative solutions. The technology can improve the efficiency of resource use especially water in the irrigated systems.