IoT-powered farming is capital-intensive yet a smart way to produce clean and sustainable edibles for the masses. With the rising urbanization and growing population, the farming sector needs to buckle up to increase production. By 2050 , the global population is expected to reach 9.6 billion, which would require approx. 70% increment in food production. This raises a high demand for technical solutions that help the growers and farm managers to strategize fulfilling the demands.
A few technological concepts like weeding robots, drones, automated harvesting, field analysis, and computerized imaging are extensively being used to improve agricultural practices and increase productivity. Since IoT technology uses sensors and gateways to extract information for improvement purposes; the farming sector is making the most out of it and increasing its productivity. Statistically, the IoT applications in Agriculture like precision farming, smart greenhouses, livestock monitoring, intelligent irrigation constitute an ever-growing market in the agriculture sector with a CAGR of 14.1% from 2019 till 2027. It is expected to reach approx. $34.9 billion by the end of 2027 and precision farming has accounted for the largest share of overall IoT applications in the agricultural market.
Purpose of Using IoT in Agriculture
The use of IoT in agriculture varies across the world in different aspects. The reason behind this difference lies in the acceptance of technological development in different parts of the world. Using IoT solutions in farming can provide you exponential growth and helps streamline your business. You can leverage large benefits by integrating advanced technologies like 5G, cloud computing with IoT solutions, and improve farming services.
The main idea behind enabling the Internet of Things for the farming sector is to inculcate automation and add a better scope for improved productivity. In terms of increased revenue, it is revealed that North America is the major contributor towards increasing digitization, technology awareness, and IoT acceptance by the farmers.
Using IoT technology can prove beneficial in all aspects of improving farming strategies and developing higher revenue. It works by utilizing the sensor devices and gateways for effective data extraction and communication throughout the processes. It is a system that consists of advanced sensors/devices, which connect through a cloud platform to process data into meaningful information. It further stores the data for convenient future access through connected gadgets and internet facilities.
The usage of IoT technology in the farming sector in mitigating the challenges like weather issues, farm management, pesticide requirements, crop quality, etc. It thereby provides a step forward to grow production in terms of best quality and revenue.
How a Smart Farming Solution Works and What are its Benefits?
A smart farming solution helps you manage all the possible farming activities through automation and smart techniques. You can install this solution to make intelligent decisions regarding crop yield quality, supply chain processes, warehouse monitoring, and livestock management. With IoT technology and its data-driven approach, you can even keep the farming equipment up to date and schedule prediction maintenance for better performance.
An IoT-powered farming solution works through high tech sensor devices. These devices get installed in appropriate places where data can be extracted. The data is then passed on a cloud platform through different kinds of communication channels and is processed into meaningful information. It is further displayed on the communicative dashboard of the user where they can perform analytics and gain actionable insights through push notifications or SMSs.
The solution is fully-fledged with the required sense of technology and provides immense benefits such as;
- Representative stats on livestock feeding and produce
- Geo-fencing and real-time tracking of the livestock
- Smart logistics and warehousing
- Remote crop monitoring
- Sensor-based field and resource mapping
- Smart greenhouses
- Intelligent pest management
- Weather forecasting
- Predictive analytics
- Remote equipment monitoring <
A smart farming solution resolves all your farm-related issues by improvising stock management, simplified data ingestion, smart contracts, and on-demand deliveries. It provides a personalized smartphone application for a user-friendly interaction across the entire farm. It also provides remote operability that helps save your time and offers cost-effective implementation of the solution.
Integrating a smart farming solution with your agricultural business enables intelligent tracking of the livestock. Moreover, the concept of geofencing is making it easier for farm managers to detect the presence of their livestock in any particular area. It is a smart technique that uses GPS tracking to locate the device present in any region.
The farming sector is increasing its worth by accepting IoT technology in multiple domains. It is redefining the existence of technology in managing farms, livestock, and producing quality crops. Being into the farm business, IoT-powered solutions allows better management strategies and maintaining the crop quality at every level. With the rising population and growing demands for food products, the IoT market size is expected to increase at significant levels for larger and quality produce.
