As we already know, the agricultural landscape is the result of different interactions between a natural setting in an area and farming activities.
It is evident that the Internet of Things (IoT), and connected devices, have had an intense impact on our modern world. Nowadays, the IoT is part of every sector of society, including the home, industrial, health, smart cities, and fitness.
As a result, IoT and connected devices have the potential to make a huge impact on farming practices and the agricultural landscape. Farmers would no longer need to rely on horses and plows.
In these times of self-driving cars and virtual realities, why rely on old methods when there are so many options?
Agriculture and Farming
Several technological advances have been made in the agricultural landscape over the past few decades. Today, it is more industrialized than ever and more technology-driven than it was a decade ago.
Smart farming gadgets improve the farmer’s work by command the process of raising livestock and growing crops. Smart pest management, agriculture robotics, and cattle tracking systems are all available. This makes it more reliable and efficient.
The role of IoT is growing in the Agriculture Sector
Smart agriculture IoT is still very popular, even though it is not as well-known as consumer-connected devices. IoT solutions are being adopted for agricultural purposes in a steady increase.
Business Intelligence has predicted that there will be 75 million IoT devices installed by 2022. This number will rise 20 percent annually.
In addition, it is also expected that the global smart agriculture market will triple by 2025. This will mean it will reach $15.3 billion. That’s a bit more than $5 billion in 2016.
Also, the world’s population is expected to grow to 9.6 billion people by 2050. As a result, the agriculture industry must embrace IoT to feed such a large population.
To meet the growing demand for food, so, we must overcome environmental impacts, extreme weather conditions, and climate change that result from intensive farming.
The integration of Internet of Things technology into the agricultural landscape operations reduces the need for manual labor, speeds up machinery commands with remote and real-time monitoring while allowing farmers to use resources more efficiently with environmental prediction and precautionary maintenance.
These innovations will be able to increase revenues as well as allow farmers to manage larger acreages.
Smart Farming Concept
Smart Agricultural Technology allows farmers to take greater control of the process of raising livestock and growing crops. It allows for huge efficiencies in scale and costs reductions, as well as helping to save limited resources like water.
Both farmers and growers can reduce waste and increase productivity. This includes reducing the amount of fertilizer used and the number of farm vehicle trips.
What is Smart Farming exactly?
Smart Farming is a high-tech, capital-intensive system that allows you to grow food sustainably and cleanly for large numbers of people. It is mainly the integration of modern Information & Communication Technologies in agriculture.
A system can help to monitor the crop field using sensors (soil moisture and temperature, humidity, light, etc.) in IoT-based smart agriculture. Farmers will be able to monitor the field conditions from anywhere, regardless of where they are located. IoT-based smart agriculture is far more efficient than conventional farming and it is also way ahead of the rest.
It will be possible to target large, conventional farming operations using IoT-based smart agriculture. There could also be new ways to raise other common trends such as organic farming and family farming.
IoT-based smart agriculture will provide enormous benefits to the environment, such as optimization of inputs and treatments, and water usage efficiency.
Higher Quality
It is possible to increase production control and maintain high standards of crop quality and growth capacity via IoT solutions. Farmers can then expect to earn higher revenues.
Crop management devices are a specific type of IoT product that allows precision farming. They can help to collect relevant data on crop farming, just like weather stations.
Leaf water potential, temperature, and precipitation are all factors that can easily be tracked. It is easier to avoid crop damage and other irregularities by monitoring crop growth.
Take control
Integrating IoT technology allows you to keep track of internal processes, which can help reduce production risk. Planning for product distribution will be easier if you can predict the output of your production. For example, if farmers know how many crops they will harvest, they can plan for increased product distribution.
Data collection
Smart sensors collect data to track things like crop growth, soil quality, weather conditions, and cattle health. This data can help farmers track the state of their operations, as well as other factors such as staff performance and equipment efficiency.
Control the Costs
Having more control over production results in less waste and allows for better management of the costs. You can reduce the risk of crop failure by being able to see any irregularities in the rate of growth and health of your livestock.
Implementing IoT Technology
It is crucial to select the right sensors when creating IoT solutions for agricultural and farming purposes. It all depends on the type of data you want to collect and what your plans are for using that information.
Is crucial to make sure that your IoT solution is successful by ensuring that sensors are of high quality. The success of your IoT solution depends on the accuracy and reliability of collected data.
A great IoT solution should be capable of operating at three levels.
- Real-time data collection and presentation.
- A global solution, not just for operators or local networks.
- This solution is simple to install, cost-effective and low-powered.
In other words, the farm is automatically able to optimize labor use, quality, cost, and yield once IoT solutions take their place in the agricultural landscape.
