Assessing precision agriculture applicability in agriculture sector in Egypt

Abstract

: Precision Agriculture is a technological trend that has been introduced to serve agricultural sector in many countries. There are many solutions and applications of precision agriculture that depend on use of information technology as well as integration between sensors and systems. The PA solutions include use of remote sensing technologies, vision sensors, robots, Internet of Things (IOT), Machine Learning (ML), blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). This paper focused on assessing precision agriculture applicability in the agriculture sector in Egypt and challenges affecting the diffusion of these technologies with proposals of overcoming these challenges. The research objective was achieved through conduction of an online survey and a focus group discussion session. Through an online survey, 31 respondents were reached and provided their opinions on the current situation. This has been followed by a focus group discussion session that was attended by 39 experts in the field of agriculture and technology. Respondents to this research are agricultural and technological experts in the field of agriculture. Conducted focus group discussion session helped in identification of the current applications of PA, challenges affecting its implementations and ways to improve its applicability. Paper addressed some needs and appropriate technologies that might be adopted by agribusiness in Egypt. In addition, it is highlighted some main recommendations that are gathered from subject matter experts in both technological and agricultural fields. Finally, this research emphasized that the precision agriculture technologies can be implemented in Egypt and support in overcoming some of the challenges affecting the development of the agriculture sector.