Food Security: challenges for NIR spectroscopists

The world population is currently at 7.3 billion and is predicted to rise to over 9 billion by 2050. The ability of the agricultural sector to provide sufficient food is of increasing concern. With the area of land under cultivation or grazing remaining relatively static there is pressure on this land to produce about 1.3% more each year. The essential resources and inputs for food production, processing, distribution, storage and prepare for consumption include -
 Clean air
 Suitable soil
 Adapted crop/pasture genotypes
 Adequate rainfall or irrigation water
 Fertilizers to replace deficient essential nutrients
 Weed and pest management
 Energy – mostly fossil fuel for crop/pasture management, harvesting, transport, processing, distribution, storage and consumption and disposal of wasted products.

The degradation of land, the exhaustion or increased cost of vital inputs, and the impact of climatic changes, are reducing the real or perceived security of food production.

Over about 140 years scientific studies have led to major gains in food production. There have been vast improvements in data gathering techniques and these now provide a basis for better management decisions. To be acceptable in the ‘real world’ the data-gathering technology must deliver accurate (or at least repeatable) data at low cost in a user-friendly manner. NIR spectroscopy matches these criteria.

The contributions of NIR technology to food security are many and include the analysis of minerals which supply plant-essential nutrients, assessments of variations across cultivated fields and landscapes, the analysis of soils, crops, pastures and edible products. The applications continue after the farm gate to the processing industry and then to the recycling of crop, food and animal waste products.

We put the view that today, over 50 years after the pioneering work of Norris and others, that NIR technology is under-utilized. There are benefits to be gained from wider adoption of NIR at each step along the food security chain. There are many small producers and processors who could benefit from adopting NIR technology. The question we ask is “How can we take NIR technology to more people and more places to aid world food security?”

This paper will discuss options as diverse as high cost satellite surveys, portable low-cost NIR instruments, mobile phone technology for data capture and transfer, unmanned aerial platforms and other strategies which have the potential to take data gathering based on NIR technology to new levels.