RFID

After meeting with Tissa Jayatilaka, the Executive Director of the Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission, and a very nice lunch, we went to a meeting to discuss the possible uses of RFID technology on Saaraketha's farm. If you're unfamiliar, RFID stands for "Radio Frequency Identification", and is a technology that allows the tracking of lots of different types of goods. There are two specific types of RFID technologies, Passive and Active. Passive RFID is unpowered and simply waits for a device to send a radio frequency. That radio frequency powers the device when it is received and the RFID tag sends out information that is then interpreted by the RFID reader. Active RFID, on the other hand, is powered by a small battery, and can be read over a much wider region.

There are lots of interesting uses for RFID technology, from tracking farm equipment to providing farm workers the ability to hit a "panic button" that lets others know that they're in trouble.

At the end of the day, however, this technology is really only as good as the reasons for its use. Active RFID is often used to "tag" livestock so that ranchers can keep track of their herds. When using this technology with farm workers, we must make sure that they don't simply feel as if we're trying to track their movements as if they were cattle. This, I would say, is a delicate balance to achieve. The technology can be tremendously powerful if we can create more efficient farms, but it must be done so that we don't lose the human touch.