PRECISION LIVESTOCK FARMING TECHNOLOGIES: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) is a disruptive animal production technology through sensor technology and Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence and automated analytics that can maximize the productivity, animal welfare, and environmental sustainability. This was a literature review that was systematic in nature and that involved 156 peer-reviewed studies that were down to this review after being screened by a PRISMA-guided screening process of prominent scientific databases. The qualitative theme synthesis and quantitative bibliometric analysis were utilized to evaluate the categories of technology, performance outcomes, the economic implications of technology, obstacles to adoption, and implications of sustainability. The results indicate that the research on PLF significantly grows since 2015, thus the technology that is most studied is wearable sensors (32%), and environmental IoT systems (24%). Their health and behavioral surveillance detection accuracy was 85-94 in the interspecies, productivity, on average and labor savings, on average, were 8-15 percentage points and 15-25 percentage points, respectively. Precision feeding systems had an impact of reducing 75 percent of the feed waste by affecting the nutrient efficiency. It was found that the intensity of emission of greenhouse gases (5-6%) and nitrogen excretion (10-20%) declined due to environmental studies. The cost-benefit discussions included that there are increasing periods of ROI positively in cases with medium-and-large operation, although the extreme capital spending and the absence of digital literacy are all critical factors to avoid the adoption. Whereas most of the literature on welfare mentioned that they found greater opportunities in the initial diagnoses of illnesses and the tracking of habits, limited concerns of stress connected to the devices were indicated. Overall, findings confirm that PLF technologies are able to offer measurable production, economic and environmental benefits, although its equitable use is associated with positive policy enforcement, infrastructural investments and capacity building.