Smart Farming – Advantages & Interesting Facts

IoT solutions are considerably remodelling agricultural businesses by automating processes and by providing valuable knowledge and insights, thus influencing the decision making.

Data collection and processing All state-of-the-art agricultural subjects are faced with the problem of data collection and processing. These activities need to be efficient, sometimes real-time, while also cheap.

Modern agriculture involves constant plant, animal and machine monitoring to ensure optimal functioning. This calls for real time automated data collection systems. To serve the purpose there are two alternatives – network of IoT devices, and unmanned automated drones. IoT data procession can be achieved by any one of the fourth methods mentioned below:

1. On premise IoT technology 2. IoT platform for the cloud (CC) 3. Edge Computing (EC) 4. Fog Computing (FC)

The on premise IoT platform as a processing model is an old-time classic solution for data processing at the ICT resources found at the environment of the organization that intends to use the information and knowledge gained from IoT data processing. The IoT platform in the cloud is a realization of IoT data processing with all advantages, disadvantages and risks, characteristic of CC model. In real-time decision-making situations, the delayed data processing by the sensor devices and/or the delayed obtaining of results is not acceptable. In such cases the IoT data must be processed on time. Data processing is carried out by ICT resources that are closely connected with IoT devices and drones for data collection.

The implementation of IoT systems has highly useful features, such as modularity (installation of a new IoT device into the network), robustness/fault tolerance (Failure of sensor does not impact the functioning of the entire network, flexibility (the sensor network does not have a fixed architecture) and low power consumption (of all the devices in the network architecture). The IoT devices are rather expensive. Fixed point for installation of IoT devices in the fields are determined by experts.

The drones are becoming increasingly more appreciated which naturally leads to a wider use in agriculture.

Risk aversion and control As we discussed data collection and processing, equally important it becomes to secure the data. With IoT in agriculture brings the risk of hacking and data theft. For instance, the drones used for surveys and monitoring must have proper employee login records or two-way authentication process for security measures.

Another risk factor for IoT in agriculture is the connectivity. By not have access to high speed, reliable and seamless internet connectivity one cannot reap the benefits of IoT. Since most of the farmlands are in remote areas or villages, the connectivity factor should always be a consideration when implementing IoT in agriculture.

Companies like Verizon are not open to all technology providers, in fact they are open and accessible to limited hardware capability. Creating an opportunity for an end-to-end Verizon branded IOT ecosystem. According to a survey, 68% of farmers have heard the term IoT for the first time. Even for the population aware, there is a sense of apprehension in adopting the new age technology.

Business automation

Automation helps control labour and rising cost of farm work, before you can automate farm operations, however, you need accurate data about the state of the farm. You also need a way for autonomous devices to connect with one another. This is the realm of the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT devices are the sensors, gauges and machines that are connected across a farm using Bluetooth, a cellular network, or some other type of connection. More IoT devices allow growers to collect more data about the state of their farms, and IoT is showing great promise for optimizing resource delivery and driving precision agriculture to achieve maximum efficiency.

For example, CropX is a company that installs soil sensors throughout the field to alert growers when soil conditions are outside the ordinary. A farmer might receive a notification that there are lower moisture levels in a certain part of the field. Given that information in real time, the farmer has an opportunity to correct the issue (in irrigation systems), to produce higher-quality and larger yields. Similar IoT sensor technology has applications in storage safety as well. OPI Systems’ sensors for silos and elevators, for instance, track conditions and send alerts when heat or moisture might damage grain, or when a fire is possible.

Quality improvements

The increasing demand of food quality has raised the need for intensification and industrialization of the agriculture sector. The “Internet of Things” (IoT) is a highly promising family of technologies which can offer many solutions towards the modernisation of agriculture. Scientific groups and research institutions, as well as the industry, are in a race trying to deliver more and more IoT products to the agricultural business stakeholders, and, eventually, lay the foundations to have a clear role when IoT becomes a mainstream technology.

Interesting facts about IoT application in agriculture

With the use of new IoT technologies, results are as follows: 35% reduction of energy costs, an 8% reduction in irrigation water use and 1.7% yield increase. The start-up ‘Biocarbon Engineering’ has a prototype of a transformed combat UAV that is used in the service of tree planting with a 75% uptake rate, as opposed to the uptake rate of 8% for dispersing dry seeds by air – this technique could reduce costs of the traditional methods by up to 85%. The field of implementation includes “planting in remote or hazardous areas, such as those affected by fires or chemical spills. There are types of trees that absorb contaminating elements, thus clearing the soil and making it suitable for further seeding.

Researchers in Japan have created small insect-sized drones which can pollinate plants. This will assist with indoor pollination and assist the real honeybee population. Wild monkeys in Oita Prefecture in Japan are dispersed and kept away from agricultural properties with the help of drones disguised as hawks.

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