The agriculture sector in Southeast Asia is now being influenced by the Fourth Industrial Revolution to make way for “Agriculture 4.0” with efforts under the Asean Cooperation on Agricultural and Bio-systems Engineering (ACABE) and the Asean Universities Consortium on Food and Agro-based Engineering and Technology Education (AUCFA) providing the platform for more technology and knowledge sharing and exchange.

Philippine Society of Agricultural and Bio-systems Engineers (PSABE) president and Asean Engineer Aldrin Badua said that the country’s agriculture sector can benefit greatly from ACABE and AUCFA, with his organization already providing forums and trainings that would help facilitate technology and knowledge sharing to help farmers in the Philippine benefit from 4ID trends.

PSABE and the Board of Agricultural and Bio-systems Engineering hosted on November 6-8 the joint conference on ACABE and AUCFA at Clark Freeport, Pampanga, with the “Referencing, harmonization and strengthening cooperation on education training and extension in support to Asean food security.”

“The conference was a forum to develop platforms among Asean member-countries for harmonizing and strengthening collaboration on agricultural and bio-systems engineering,” said Engr. Ariodear Rico, Professional Regulation Board Chair for Agriculture and Bio-systems Engineering. Various plenary speakers from different Asean member-countries and local agricultural and bio-systems from all over the country attended the conference.

“The Asean agriculture sector is gradually being influenced by the  Fourth Industrial Revolution, where there is convergence of biological, physical or mechanical and digital technologies, with the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) playing a big role in transforming how things are done,” Badua said.

He added that more farmers are becoming aware on the need to mechanize their operations from planting to harvesting, enabling them to achieve better efficiency for their on-field operations.

However, Badua said the adoption of digital technologies like GPS and tapping the power of the IoT can further improve farming operations, food processing and marketing.

“Before, it was unthinkable for farmers to tap the power of the social media for information sharing, and for students of agriculture and related degrees to study how AI can be applied to farming operations. But years from now, AI will be widely accepted as a tool to increase crop production along with mechanization,” he added.

A resource person during the forum, Dr. Siti Khairunniza Bejo, the head of Malaysia’s Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, said the Asean agriculture sector will greatly benefit from the application of AI and robotics to achieve higher level of efficiencies and to attract more young people to farming.

“Agriculture 4.0 will help attract more young people to farming,” she added.

For his part, Dr. Kudang Boro Seminar, a professor in Indonesia’s Department of Mechanical and Biosystem Engineering and the Computer Science Department of Bogor Agricultural University, said Agriculture 4.0 will feature the application of various technologies including digitisation and AI.

“Indonesia is now becoming aware of precision agriculture and smart farming, which can help attract more of the youth to farming,” he said.

Badua added that under AUCFA, there are efforts to harmonize the curriculum for agriculture and related courses among Asean universities and colleges, so the exchange of knowledge can be facilitated. This will also allow licensed agriculturists and agricultural engineers from the region to eventually be recognized professionally in all Asean member-states.

Also, PSABE is cooperating with stage colleges and universities, various government agencies, and the private sector to help Filipino agriculture and bio-systems engineers gain more knowledge and competence through AUCFA and ACABE.

“PSABE helps foster cooperation within AUCFA and ACABE, so we can also improve the knowledge and competence of our very own agriculture and biosystems engineers,” Badua said, adding this is very important for the Philippine agriculture sector to become “Agriculture 4.0”

The conference was organized by the Professional Regulatory Board of Agricultural and Bio-systems Engineering in collaboration with the Commission on Higher Education, Pampanga State Agricultural University and the Department of Agriculture through the Agricultural Training Institute, Bureau of Agricultural and Fisheries Engineering and the Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries.

PSABE was formerly the Philippine Society for Agricultural Engineers (PSAE), a non-profit organization founded in 1950 to advance the profession of agricultural engineering. PSAE was transformed to PSABE in April this year to also help advance the professions related to bio-systems and biological engineering in the country, with the aim of making them and agricultural engineers competent regionally (in Asean) and internationally.

PSABE’s precursor organization was the Philippine Society of Agricultural Engineers (PSAE), that was transformed to PSABE based on Republic Act 10915 signed into law on July 21, 2016, or the Philippine Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Act of 2016.