Smart agriculture is mostly used to denote the application of IoT solutions in agriculture. There are many ways to refer to modern agriculture. For example, AgriTech refers to the general application of technology to agriculture.
Farmers have already begun employing some high tech farming techniques and technologies in order to improve the efficiency of their day-to-day work. For example, sensors placed in fields allow farmers to obtain detailed maps of both the topography and resources in the area, as well as variables such as acidity and temperature of the soil. They can also access climate forecasts to predict weather patterns in the coming days and weeks.
The Benefits of Smart Farming:
Technologies and IoT have the potential to transform agriculture in many aspects. There are many ways IoT can improve agriculture:
- Tons of data, collected by smart agriculture sensors, e.g. weather conditions, soil quality, crop’s growth progress or cattle health. This data can be used to track the state of your business in general, as well as staff performance, equipment efficiency, etc.
- Better control over the internal processes and, as a result, lower production risks. The ability to foresee the output of your production allows you to plan for better product distribution. If you know exactly how much crops you are going to harvest, you can make sure your product won’t lie around unsold.
- Cost management and waste reduction thanks to the increased control over production. Being able to see any anomalies in the crop growth or livestock health, you will be able to mitigate the risks of losing your yield.
- Increased business efficiency through process automation. By using smart devices, you can automate multiple processes across your production cycle, e.g. irrigation, fertilizing, or pest control.
- Enhanced product quality and volumes. Achieve better control over the production process and maintain higher standards of crop quality and growth capacity through automation.
Farmers can use their smartphones to remotely monitor their equipment, crops, and livestock, as well as obtain stats on their livestock feeding and produce. They can even use this technology to run statistical predictions for their crops and livestock.
Drones are becoming an invaluable tool for farmers to survey their lands, perform field analysis, and generate real time data. Drones allow farmers to monitor how far along crops are in their respective growth periods. Additionally, farmers can spray ailing crops via drones with substances to bring them back to life.
Smart agriculture and precision farming are taking off, but they could just be the precursors to even greater use of technology in the farming world.
The rise of blockchain technology is making its way to the IoT, and could be important in the farming sector due to its ability to provide companies with important data on crops. Farmers can use sensors to gather data about crops, which is written onto blockchain, and includes identifying factors as well as salt and sugar content and pH levels.