Connected devices somehow have successfully permeated every part of our lives as a result of the increasing adoption of IoT or Internet of Things. This increased adoption can be seen in smart cities, industrial IoT, home automation, fitness and health, logistics and automotive.
Therefore, it makes sense that IoT, linked devices, as well as automation will find use in agriculture, due to this, significantly improve almost every aspect of it. Furthermore, how could people still use plows and horses in an age where self-driving automobiles as well as virtual reality were commonplace rather than sci-fi fantasies?
What Does Smart Agriculture Mean?
The term “smart agriculture” is typically used to refer to the utilization of IoT technologies in agriculture. Then what does smart agriculture using IoT mean?
Farmers may use IoT sensors in gathering machine and environmental parameters, which will allow them to better manage anything from raising cattle to growing crops.
Farmers may determine the exact amount of fertilizers and pesticides they need to use in order to achieve maximum efficiency, for instance, by utilizing smart agriculture sensors in monitoring the condition of crops. The definition of “smart farming” holds true as well.
Integrating Smart Agriculture Using IoT
All IoT-based technologies are centered on data. Smart farms should establish a constant cycle which gathers as well as analyzes data in order to carry out the subsequent set of activities to assure optimization. An illustration of the smart farming process is as follows:
- Observation: Sensing devices use sensors for sending the surroundings as well as collect vital information regarding the humidity, temperature, soil, etc.
- Diagnostics: For any data analytics, sensor data is transferred to cloud systems based on the Internet of Things.
- Making decisions: Farmers decide what to do depending on their analysis in order to produce better results.
- Actions: The cycle restarts at the beginning whenever tasks are performed.
How Can IoT Help with Agricultural Issues?
Precision farming
A contemporary method of farming called precision farming uses precision values for producing and yielding more. It gathers precise information and numbers regarding agricultural lands. Because selections are done for each animal or plant instead of the entire product or herd of cattle, plants and animals receive the precise quantity of input they require.
Accurate Livestock Farming
Using precise processes that produce reliable data about specific cattle, PLF’s primary goal is to oversee, regulate, and regulate individual animals. Precision technology also helps in measuring and collecting data regarding animals every day, 24 hours a day. In the event that an issue arises with a farm animal, all farms are informed. As a result, the farmers can react rapidly to stop the spread of illness or all other obstacles.
Automation for smart greenhouses
The smart greenhouses have actuators and temperature sensors for control. These gadgets continuously gather and transmit data. This data is fed into clouds, which later store it on servers for use in the future. Following completion of a performance analysis, lighting control as well as spraying operations are managed appropriately.
Agricultural drones
Drones are used by farmers to gather insight and real-time data about the animals and crops in the barns. Drones fly overhead and keep an eye on the whole field, alerting farmers to any unusual activity. The drones are positioned for security reasons as well.
Climatic conditions are well monitored
The weather stations that incorporate numerous sensors for smart farming are arguably the most well-liked smart agricultural technology. They are spread out around the area and gather various environmental data before sending it to cloud. The measurements offered can be utilized in mapping the climatic conditions, select the suitable crops, and implement the necessary improvements.
Management of crops
Crop management tools are an additional IoT product category in agriculture as well as a component of precision farming. They must be set up in the fields to gather information pertaining to growing crops, such as precipitation and temperature as well as leaf water capacity and general crop health, just as weather stations.
So you can successfully stop any diseases and pests that could reduce your crop’s output, you can keep an eye on your crop’s growth as well as any irregularities.
Factors to Take into Account When Creating a Smart Farming Solution
We can see that there are countless applications for IoT use in agriculture. The performance and income of your farm can be improved in a variety of ways with the aid of smart technologies. However, creating IoT applications for agriculture is not a simple operation.
There are some difficulties you should take note of when planning to invest in smart farming.
Hardware
You must decide which sensors to use for the device if you want to design IoT solution to aid agriculture. Your decision will be based on the data you wish to gather and the overall goal of the solution.
In any event, your product’s success would depend on precision and dependability of the data that is acquired, thus your sensors’ quality is essential.
The brain
Each smart agriculture solution should be built around data analytics. If you are unable to comprehend of the obtained data, it won’t be of use in and of itself.
Therefore, to acquire meaningful insights from your data, you must possess strong capabilities for data analytics and employ predictive algorithms as well as machine learning.
Maintenance
For IoT solutions in agriculture, the difficulty of hardware maintenance is crucial because these sensors are frequently utilized in this field as well as are easily broken.
Therefore, you must ensure that the hardware is robust and simple to maintain.
Mobility
Applications for smart farming should be made specifically for utilization in fields. A farm manager or business owner ought to have on-site or remote access to the data using a desktop computer or smartphone.
Conclusion
Over the past few decades, farming has experienced some technological changes that have made it more industrialized as well as technology-driven. Farmers have improved control over the livestock production process as well as growing crops by using a variety of smart agriculture tools, making it more predictable as well as improving the efficiency.
