Meet the young people making irrigation in Asia smarter

Since farming first began thousands of years ago, it has followed the same patterns of sowing, growth, harvest and rest. But the world is changing at a pace farmers can't always keep up with.

Luckily, young rural people are bringing agriculture into the digital age. As digital natives, they know technology can meet farming challenges both new and old – and they know how to use it, too.

Meet three young people in Asia who’ve cracked the code: how to irrigate crops while saving both time and water, ensuring each plant gets exactly what it needs.

Starting up success in Cambodia

Sokkim Neak grew up seeing her family spend long hours manually irrigating their fields each day. That's why, as a university student, she co-founded CAM-Science: a tech start-up finding better ways of farming.

Together with her team, Sokkim designed a digital system that allows farmers to control irrigation from their mobile phones while measuring useful indicators, like soil moisture and air temperature. As part of its development, she met farmers in their communities to better understand the problems they faced.

SAAMBAT, a business incubator supported by IFAD, saw the potential of CAM-Science and provided funding, mentoring and legal support. The programme linked the company both to Cambodia’s start-up ecosystem and to the small-scale farmers who would benefit from the technology.

Now 21 years old, Sokkim is the proud CEO of a growing start-up. As CAM-Science flourishes, so too do the farmers who use its smart irrigation system. Thanks to the technology, the time they spend irrigating has halved.

“The farmers we’ve worked with are so impressed. They see better crop yields and lower water use,” Sokkim says. “It’s an amazing return on investment for them.”

But the young entrepreneur isn’t resting on her laurels. Now, she and her colleagues are exploring new technologies, such as AI and data analysis that could improve the system.

Sokkim (far left) and CAM-Science colleagues stand with two farmers who use their product. © CAM-Science

Bringing innovation home in China

When Yang Fei returned to his family's farm after years as a migrant worker in southern China, he immediately saw the potential of its delicious fruit: strawberries, cherries and crisp pears.

But he also noticed great challenges. The farm's traditional manual watering process was highly inefficient and made expansion impossible.

Energetic and full of ideas to solve these challenges, Fei set to work. With support from the Sustaining Poverty Reduction through Agribusiness Development in South Shaanxi programme, he studied digital farming methods and started implementing them on his farm.

“I initially bought one or two small pumps and controllers to try it on a small scale, and found it was workable,” he explains. “Then we erected electric poles and set up a network across the entire orchard.”

Today, Fei efficiently manages a 20-hectare farm from his mobile phone. With the swipe of a finger, he can apply the right amount of water and fertilizer to individual plants.

The success of his farm has also had downstream effects: with increased production, new jobs have emerged in processing, transporting and marketing the fruit to consumers.

Fei demonstrates his smart irrigation system on his orchard in Dongliang village, Shaanxi, China. © Yan Hongbin

Making farming cool again in Indonesia

In Indonesia, farming is often seen as old-fashioned. Only a fifth of farmers are younger than 40, with young people increasingly opting for jobs they see as easier and more modern.

But the IFAD-backed YESS programme is bringing young people back into farming. Rural youth across Indonesia are receiving training in smart irrigation systems – and helping to transform the country’s farms.

"Modern technology innovation has developed so fast that only millennial farmers are able to use and implement this smart farming,” says Dedi Nursyamsi, head of the government’s collaborating Agricultural Human Resources Extension and Development Agency.

Like Sokkim and Fei, rural youth can now water fruits and vegetables easily and accurately. They’re showing other young Indonesians that farming can be as high-tech as any city career – and bring genuine job satisfaction.

Innovators, entrepreneurs, changemakers: young rural people are bringing the digital revolution home. In doing so, they’re charting the path to sustainable rural transformation that benefits the whole world.