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Smart Farming

The FAO Smart Farming approach empowers small-scale farmers to enhance their livelihoods by achieving sustainable crop intensification, higher income, and improved safety, quality, and yields of fresh produce. Focusing on high-value, nutritious fruits and vegetables, the Smart Farming approach promotes the adoption of affordable technologies and good agricultural practices to increase the efficiency, quality and safety of horticultural production, support income generation, create decent jobs, and reduce food loss and waste.

The approach supports farmers through six core areas of intervention:

    Low-cost and low-energy protected cultivation systems, allowing farmers for:

  • Environmental control: anticipate, delay and stretch harvesting seasons while protecting crops from environmental events like rain and excessive light, heat or cold.
  • Protection from pests and diseases: Using equipment like anti-insect nets, double entrance, disinfection mats, reducing the need for chemical control of crop threats.
  • Resource optimization: enhancing efficient use of inputs, including land, water, and energy.

Good horticultural practices for sustainable crop intensification:

  • Adoption of techniques and technologies: intensifying production through trellising, raised beds, pruning, pollination, harvesting, plant nutrition, and plant protection strategies including screening, monitoring, and exclusion.
  • Environmental optimization: using efficient irrigation and air ventilation to tailor conditions to closely meet plant requirements, promoting enhanced plant development and shorter time to harvest.

    Local technical capacities and proximity technical support:

  • Capacity building: training farmers and farmers' groups, field technical experts, and extension agents.
  • Technical services: providing regular, qualified technical support throughout the entire crop cycle.

    High-quality inputs:

  • Adoption of standards: emphasizing use of high-quality seeds and seedlings, including grafted seedlings and fertilizers management, and development of local technical capacities such as micro-grafting to increase harvests and produce quality.

    Market-orientation:

  • Crop calendar adaptation: leveraging diversification opportunities and innovations in protected cultivation systems with the latest technologies and practices.
  • Marketing strategies: forming partnerships with market actors, training farmers in effective marketing practices, and developing local capacities for grading, packaging, and selling products to reach higher-end market segments.

    Digital technologies:

  • Supporting decision-making at the farm level with early identification of environmental stressors, optimized use of water and energy, and crop performance analysis.