High-Tech Solution Developed To Address Food Crisis

Global temperatures are expected to slowly rise, and extreme weather events are intensifying. As NASA pointed out, extreme heat events are becoming more frequent and severe. This is a threat to all living things. And for humans, it is also a significant threat to our farmland and food supply.

At the 2025 meeting of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, researchers from South Dakota State University presented ways to help farmers optimize crop yields while lowering costs. Per a school release, the system they created uses biosensors and employs the Internet of Things and AI to track and analyze crop development.

For the data to be completely analyzed, it must be stored in the cloud. This means it is vulnerable to infiltration. However, the innovative methods developed by Professor Lin Wei and his Ph.D. student Manish Shrestha used advanced security protocols, encryption, and cryptography to ensure the massive amount of data was safe while being stored and analyzed in the cloud.

Incredibly, this could all be run on small devices, eliminating the need for large servers to protect the data.

The analyzed data can be a tremendous asset in protecting our food supply. It enables farmers to make more informed decisions about their practices, including irrigation, fertilization, disease, and pest control, without compromising the safety of their operations. By keeping the data safe and secure, farmers can innovate and hopefully safeguard their harvests.

And this is just the latest good news regarding technological advances that are bolstering our food supplies. A team of scientists from China and Australia has announced a new way to produce ammonia for fertilizer that reduces its environmental impact. Meanwhile, Sweden has discovered an innovative use for steam to protect seeds from pests.

Any advancements in food technology and innovations in crop monitoring and data collection are extremely important. The researchers behind the study proudly touted their accomplishments.

"Our research received considerable attention, with many experts emphasizing how cybersecurity must be a core component when developing smart farming technologies," Shrestha said.

South Dakota State University researchers now plan to build on their innovative breakthrough by speeding up their processing time and powering it all with solar batteries.