Historically traditional, the agricultural industry has been virtually unchanged for centuries. New farmers in the industry are beginning to include more technology solutions into agriculture to address the many challenges, including artificial intelligence, livestock technology, and automation and robotics.
Find out more about how these new technologies are supporting farming as it shifts into the 21st century.
Tracing the Evolution of Farming
Over millennia, hunter-gatherers began farming the land and herding wild livestock to breed and raise for food. Farming stayed the same throughout this time, until the First Industrial Revolution.
Regarded as one of the most traditional of industries, farming has actually been driving change during major industrial revolutions. Farming has many of the same obstacles, no matter the time period, such as labor shortages and inflation.
In addition, the world population keeps rising, adding to the demand on agricultural workers. With the Fourth Industrial Revolution, IoT offers a solution for the agricultural industry to improve efficiency and optimize its processes to brace for change.
What Is Smart Agriculture?
Smart agriculture refers to the use of IoT in agriculture, using IoT sensors to collect data, monitor the condition of crops, and optimize efficiency.
The agricultural industry may not have adopted IoT as readily as other industries, but the market is dynamic. Faced with worker shortages and supply chain challenges, more and more farmers are ready for innovation.
According to reports, the global smart agriculture market size is expected to triple by 2025, reaching $15.3 billion, compared to around $5 billion in 2016.
Here are some ways IoT improves agriculture:
- Collecting data for performance and health
- Controlling internal processes and lowering production risks
- Managing costs and waste
- Enhancing product volume
- Improving business efficiency
IoT Use Cases in Agriculture
The possibilities for IoT are just beginning, but here are some of the current use cases revolutionizing the industry:
Climate Monitoring
Climate monitoring devices like weather stations with sensors can collect data about the environment, map climate controls, and optimize crop capacity. Located in remote or inhospitable areas, these devices can measure growth with accuracy and precision.
Precision Agriculture
Precision agriculture provides insights for accurate, data-driven decisions and efficiency. IoT sensors collect important metrics for humidity, temperature, soil conditions, lighting, and disease to optimize resources and address problems early.
Crop Management
Crop management devices are similar to weather stations and collect data for crops, such as health, precipitation, and temperature to help farmers monitor growth and conditions.
Cattle Monitoring and Management
IoT for cattle monitoring helps monitor herd health like a medical wearable, collecting data on health parameters like heart and respiration rate. Cattle monitoring also tracks the location of the herd and possible disease risks.
Predictive Analytics
Predictive analytics is an important component of precision agriculture for forecasting and optimization. Primarily managing risk with weather conditions, data analytics helps farmers manage and optimize resources like fertilizers and water.
Agriculture Drones
Agricultural drones are more precise and manageable than planes or satellites, offering opportunities to monitor, spray pesticides, and plant crops.
Greenhouse Automation
Greenhouses can use IoT sensors to provide real-time information on changing conditions like temperature, humidity levels, and soil quality. These sensors ensure controls to adjust conditions and match the perfect parameters.
End-to-End Management
A variety of IoT devices and sensors with analytical capabilities can assist with end-to-end management and remote farm monitoring. These complex devices allow farmers to streamline operations.
Addressing the Challenges of Smart Farming
The applications for IoT may be limitless, but there are still challenges.
- Data analytics and predictive algorithms: Data analytics is an important aspect of smart agriculture.
- Hardware and sensor quality: The information you collect and the quality of the data you need should guide your choices for hardware and sensors.
- Mobility for field use: Like maintenance, smart devices should be durable and suited for field use and remote-enabled to provide access on a device.
- Continual maintenance: IoT devices for farming can be set up in remote environments, but that means more challenging maintenance.
- Connectivity: Communication is vital to IoT device efficacy, and connections should be able to travel great distances and be reliable in rough weather conditions.
- Security: Farming IoT leverages massive data sets, creating possible security risks. Data security must be maintained regularly to reduce vulnerabilities. AI-based security solutions, encryption, and remote access control are all vital to stringent security.
Moving Agriculture into the Future with IoT Innovation
Agriculture has joined the revolution with the adoption of new technologies, including IoT devices. Farmers are faced with ongoing challenges and obstacles, and IoT offers one of the best solutions to address them. New and young farmers are bringing agriculture into the 21st century with future technologies that leverage data, automation, robotics, tracking, and more to optimize efficiency and improve yield for operators.
