It is worth pondering how farmers have been managing crop health in recent times as the demand for food is increasingly growing with an upsurge in the human population. Previously, it was not considered much challenging to manage everything manually, but with the growing production, population, and demand, it is now becoming quite difficult for the farmers to keep a proper check on the quality of the crops.
IoT in the farming sector is a significant advancement in terms of different sensors and gateway connectivity. It is further attached to a user-friendly dashboard, which enables an automated management system for simplified monitoring. Traditional crop health management usually involves the use of fungicides, pesticides, manual labor, and others. However, it is constantly changing due to scientific developments, financial constraints, and societal pressures. The use of IoT technology is set to bring a considerable change in the farming sector, involving development and improvements concerning pest management and crop management programs. Crop management integrates with pest monitoring to optimize plant health and profitable economic returns, minimizing the negative effect on the environment. With the advent of IoT technology, disease management has improved considerably. Farmers can now keep a real-time check on various data parameters like nutrient effects, calcium, etc., to ensure maximum yield and quality produce.
Precision Agriculture
Precision farming is specifically related to satellite farming that helps manage the farm activities by going site-specific. It is mainly based on monitoring, measuring, & analyzing the crop yield through technology. It is considered one of the most essential parts of the modern agricultural revolution. The global population is expected to reach up to 9.6 billion by the end of the year 2050. This would entail the requirement of double the production to feed every person. According to McKinsey, the development of precision agriculture mainly follows two trends; Big Data & advanced analytics along with robotics. It involves aerial imagery, sensor devices, sophisticated local weather forecasts, which are enabled with GPS features.
Precision agriculture focuses more on ensuring industrial profitability, equipment efficiency, and sustainability while protecting the environment. It works on a rotatory basis as the farmers rotate crops to improve the crop health and variety and monitor the irrigation rates so that the crops are not destroyed with the accumulation of salt. It is also a great practice used by most farm managers to add nutrients, water, seeds, and other agricultural inputs to grow a variety of crops in a diverse soil environment. Moreover, it involves many elements like variable rate technology (VRT), GPS soil sampling, remote sensing, and computer-based applications.
IoT-enabled precision agriculture provides an efficient lookout towards the working of the farming sector and enables a specifically targeted approach to maintain crop health in all situations. The VRT – Variable Rate Technology provides variable input applications that offer the farmers complete control of the number of input functions being applied in a specific location. It involves the use of essential components like a computer, software, GPS, etc. Precision farming uses GPS technology for efficient soil sampling, analyzing the availability of nutrients, pH levels, and range of other data. The managers need to be able to make informed decisions and increase profitability. Technology-based soil sampling allows the farmers to consider productivity differences within the fields and come up with a plan that strategizes those differences for quality produce.
Precision agriculture further uses remote sensing technology, which can be used to monitor & manage the farmlands, irrigation facilities, and other resources remotely. It helps determine every detail of the farming business, estimating the required amount of moisture in the soil. Thus, when integrated with precision agriculture, IoT technology enhances the workability and efficiency of the farms by allowing the managers to properly manage the fields even from remote locations.
Role of IoT in Bettering Crop Health Management
Crop health management is a dire necessity in the current situation, where almost 20%-25% of crop yield is lost due to pest intervention, diseases, or post-harvest losses. It involves a massive loss of revenue and affects the production quantity in numerous ways. Further, it involves water, fertilizers, time and effort, and other resources to maintain the crops.
IoT-based crop health monitoring thus provides a data-driven approach with the use of sensor devices, gateway connectivity, and a user-friendly dashboard to monitor the crops in real-time. It includes monitoring of different parameters like temperature, humidity, precipitation, pest intrusion, seed & soil quality, thus enabling better decision-making in terms of crop quality and health. This involves quick involvement of the farm managers, in case of urgent situations like overnight freezing or pest entrants, even from remote locations when they are not available on-site. IoT crop health monitoring systems can benefit the farming sector in a lot of ways, including reduced human labor and high costs. It further takes care of the vast amount of data and suggests proper measures that must be taken for better crop yield. Here are a few benefits of using a Biz4intellia Solution.
Benefits of using Biz4intellia Solution
Using the Biz4intellia IoT solution for your farming business provides a data-driven approach to improve and eliminate potential loopholes. Utilizing the sensor capabilities to monitor fields and using gateway connectivity to transfer data to convert into information provides an effective way to capture crop health data in real-time. Biz4intellia uses advanced sensor devices that work precisely towards improving business opportunities and provides actionable insights for strategic decisions. It helps qualify with the required seed quality, the moisture content in the soil, and other significant necessities to improve crop yield. This involves a user-friendly dashboard mainly used to carry out the entire operations in a much simplified and appropriate manner. It works effectively to show the information in the form of a detailed report where everything is depicted through easy-to-understand visualization. This further helps analyze the varying situations and business growth in a particular period, enabling informed decision-making.
Here are a few of the prominent advantages of using the Biz4intellia IoT solution for the farming sector.
• Real-time Crop Health Monitoring
• Effective and Informed Decision-Making
• Visualized Report Generation (Graphical)
• Geofencing
• Customizable Solutions as per business requirements
• Share Reports with concerned authority in just a click
• Wired as well as Battery-based Solution
• Instant SMS Alerts
Conclusion
Internet of Things is a booming technology that is helping the farming sector flourish in almost every way possible. Implementing technology with your business not only improves productivity or profits but also brings brand value to the services that you render. In addition, it also creates a sense of credibility and builds consumer trust.
