The global population is predicted to touch 9.6 billion by 2050 – this poses a big problem for the agriculture industry. Despite combating challenges like extreme weather conditions, rising climate change, and farming’s environmental impact, the demand for more food has to be met. To meet these increasing needs, agriculture has to turn to new technology. Smart farming based on IoT technologies will enable growers and farmers to reduce waste and enhance productivity from optimizing fertilizer use to increasing the efficiency of farm vehicles’ routes.
What is Smart Farming : Smart farming is a capital-intensive and hi-tech system of growing food cleanly and sustainable for the masses. It is the application of modern ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) into agriculture.
Applications of IoT in Agriculture
1.Smart Farming : A system is built for monitoring the crop field with the help of sensors (light, humidity, temperature, soil moisture, etc.) and automating the irrigation system. The farmers can monitor the field conditions from anywhere. IoT-based smart farming is highly efficient when compared with the conventional approach.
The applications of IoT-based smart farming not only target conventional, large farming operations, but could also be new levers to uplift other growing or common trends in agricultural like organic farming, family farming (complex or small spaces, particular cattle and/or cultures, preservation of particular or high-quality varieties, etc.), and enhance highly transparent farming.
In terms of environmental issues, IoT-based smart farming can provide great benefits including more efficient water usage, or optimization of inputs and treatments.
2.Agriculture Drones : Drones are being used to improve several agricultural practices in Smart Farming Using IoT. There are two types of agricultural drones, the surface-based and aerial-based. The drones are used for activities such as assessment of crop health, spraying of crops, planting, soil and field analysis, crop monitoring, and irrigation.
Drones can collect Multispectral, thermal and visual imagery data that provide the farmers with a wide array of metrics such as plant health, plant count and expected yield, soil nitrogen and moisture content, drainage mapping, and canopy cover mapping. The data helps the farmer make the right decisions and use only the required resources to avoid wastage.
Aerial drones cover more land than a ground-based human observer in the same amount of time as it has the ability to avoid barriers. Automating drones to carry out routine assessments eliminates the need for human operation. The drones are deployed to cover large tracts of land where regular monitoring is required. Also, drones are very useful in situations where bacteria, fungus, or pests are difficult to control and require regular spraying and monitoring.
3.Smart Greenhouses : Traditional greenhouses relied on manual interventions to control environmental parameters for the growth of crops. However, manual interventions have disadvantages such as energy loss and production loss. Smart greenhouse solves these issues by use of IoT systems by monitoring and controlling aspects such as temperatures, luminosity, soil and mineral content, and humidity. Using the collected data, optimal plant growth conditions can be maintained to ensure maximum production. The actuators are controlled automatically to control the conditions by performing actions like opening a window, turning on the lights, and controlling the heater and fan, among others.
Smart greenhouses also help in reducing wastage smart agriculture using IOT. By monitoring moisture content, the right amount of water can be used for irrigation and this prevents wastage, the same case applies to soil mineral content as the right minerals in the right amounts are used. This reduces wastage and maintains a balance that is best for crop growth.
4.Data Analytics : The conventional database system does not have enough storage for the data collected from the IoT sensors. Cloud based data storage and an end-to-end IoT Platform plays an important role in the smart agriculture system.
These systems are estimated to play an important role such that better activities can be performed. In the IoT world, sensors are the primary source of collecting data on a large scale. The data is analyzed and transformed to meaningful information using analytics tools. The data analytics helps in the analysis of weather conditions, livestock conditions, and crop conditions.
The data collected leverages the technological innovations and thus making better decisions. With the help of the IoT devices, you can know the real-time status of the crops by capturing the data from sensors. Using predictive analytics, you can get an insight to make better decisions related to harvesting. The trend analysis helps the farmers to know upcoming weather conditions and harvesting of crops. IoT in the Agriculture Industry has helped the farmers to maintain the quality of crops and fertility of the land, thus enhancing the product volume and quality.
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