Agriculture has been the pillar of human society from prehistoric times to the present. However, conventional farming is proving hard to meet the demand for farmers with the ever-growing global population to feed. There are 0 steps in Agriculture 2.0, a revolution brought about by IoT or the Internet of Things.
Modernized Farming with IoT:
Precision Agriculture with IoT:
A farm where it doesn’t work on assumptions, but actual data analysis and interpretation. This is the idea of precision agriculture which is one of the pillars of what is referred to as Agriculture 2. 0. By deploying a network of sensors, actuators, and other connected devices across fields, farmers gain a wealth of information about their crops and environment
- Soil moisture levels
- Crop health
- Weather conditions
This information is then communicated to a central base station or another relevant cloud solution where it is processed into useful information. Farmers can access this data on their smartphones or tablets regarding the following aspects:
- Optimizing irrigation
- Fertilizer application
- Pest and disease control
- Support for Indoor Farming
Indoor Farming:
The use of IoT and various software solutions to facilitate farming has expanded worldwide, creating numerous opportunities for farmers to engage in intensive indoor farming. It can be divided into microclimates for different growing conditions and data are collected on an open source platform where it instantly gets shared.
The information that consists of such parameters as temperature, relative humidity, dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide, is used to develop the “climate recipe,” which is used for the cultivation of crops in a similar controlled environment. Controlling factors such as light, temperature, water and humidity with computer and internet services is much less prone to human error as well as the effects of the external environment.
Control of Crops, Fields, and Equipment from Remote Locations:
Another problem is that it is almost impossible for farmers to monitor the health and condition of all crops available on the farm on a routine basis. Concerning the specific physical environment, there are problems associated with increased levels of dryness of the soil, failures in the agricultural equipment used, or other factors affecting the efficiency of work on the field, and if not corrected early enough, the outcome could be devastating. Data from the fields is transmitted in real-time, to a gateway or a micro-controller and can be accessed by farmers via an Android-based mobile application on their smart devices.
This innovation allows farmers to manage their farms from the comfort of their homes. This helps in the monitoring of the crop health as well as the farming equipment’s performance.
Smart Tractors Get Rolling:
Farm tractors that can operate on their own have also started to transform the contemporary farming industry. These are internet-connected tractors with sensors affixed to the tractor and can also be controlled by farmers using GPS technology. Besides helping to produce crop and soil data, these advanced tractors help in herbicide application and weed identification.
Self-propelled machines used in the agricultural setting have sensors that determine the actual composition of liquid fertilizers, hence appropriate spraying. To fully benefit from smart tractor technology, the devices should include a spectrometer, a high-power infrared camera, a small computer for signal processing, a tool for fluorescence measurement to monitor chlorophyll, and a GPS receiver.
Fighting against Pest Infestations:
To minimize crop damage from fungi and pests, new sensors are being incorporated into the pest control systems by OEMs. These tools can survey and monitor the crops, determine the rate of growth of plants and even locate fields that are infected with pests which can be treated immediately by the farmers. These sensors are used in generating and transferring information and they incorporate environmental parameters into the information. The trends of IoT practices in agriculture have also developed historical records of pest infestation, which is a great accomplishment that helps minimize crop losses and major economic losses to farmers.
Smarter Livestock Management:
New directions have pointed out that one of the trending topics of current interest is ‘connected cows’. IoT technologies are constantly supporting farmers to oversee livestock through integrated systems that monitor not only the GPS position but also actions, heart rate, temperature, tissues conditions, and other significant biometric characteristics.
The use of web-based systems in managing livestock allows early diagnosis of diseases, controlling treatments, quarantining affected animals in different groups from healthy ones, and timely reporting of deaths among animals.
Conclusion:
Agriculture 2. 0 may not be as apparent as 5G, but the IoT is also revolutionizing how we cultivate food. This article discussed how IoT can be used in precision agriculture, and showed that through the use of real-time data, farmers can control aspects such as water requirement, fertilizer and pests. We explored the potential of the vertical farming concept which involves growing plants and crops in an indoor controlled environment and using data analysis to determine the best climate for growth.
