Agricultural Applications Of IoT

In this article, we will go over various agricultural IoT applications. We shall first look at how IoT can help farmers take agriculture to the next level and then look at seven mind-boggling applications of IoT in the agricultural sector. So buckle up, and read till the end of the article.

IoT Uses in the Agricultural Sector

People say that in the future, only two professionals will remain: agriculture and teaching, one for physical starvation and the other for mental starvation. If it weren’t for agriculture and hardworking farmers, life as we know it would not exist.

Just remember this: farming is not a job. It is a way of life. One of the many reasons why we prefer other jobs over farming is because of money, but people don’t realize that a farmer is a magician who produces money from the mud! Ironically, there are thousands of farmers committing suicide.

Thanks to modern technology like IoT, agriculture is being revived to its former glory. There is so much much technology used that even agriculture nowadays that even farming, has become “smart”.

The answer to meeting the global demand for food lies within the concept of sustainable food production with smart agriculture. This concept also reduces the environmental footprint and waste of resources and helps in achieving environmental sustainability.

Let us look at some of the eye-opening applications of IoT in the agricultural sector.

1. Precision Farming

Precision agriculture is anything that makes farming accurate and controlled. Precision farming is obtained using information technology, sensors, robotics, automation vehicles, control systems, variable rate technology, and many more.

Precision farming is the most popular application of IoT in the agricultural sector and is used by several organisations. One such well-known organisation is CropMetrics, a precision agriculture organisation that focuses on ultra-modern agronomic solutions and specialises in the management of precision irrigation.

2. Drones

Nowadays, agricultural drones are becoming very popular for various reasons and enhancing agricultural practices. There are two types of drones used: ground-based and aerial-based.

Drones are used for various tasks like assessing crop health, monitoring the crop, spraying pesticides, irrigation, planting, and analysing the field by capturing multispectral, thermal, and visual imagery during flight.

If we combine the right strategy and planning based on real-time data collection from drones, we can give a high-tech makeover to the agricultural sector and have off-the-charts profits.

3. Monitoring Livestock

Farming is not only growing and harvesting crops. There is also the aspect of livestock. Farmers with huge ranches and farms are already utilising wireless IoT applications to track their cattle’s location, health, and well-being.

This process also lets them identify sick animals, isolate them from the herd, take care of them, and curb the spread of the disease among other animals. IoT also helps cut labour costs as owners can locate their cattle using connected sensors and cameras.

JMB North America is a well-reputed association that offers livestock monitoring solutions. One crazy example is letting farmers know that cows are pregnant and will conceive offspring. It uses a sensor fueled by a battery removed when its water breaks. This sensor sends data to the owner or the farmer.

4. Climate Monitoring IoT Devices

We all know that weather and rain play a vital role in agriculture as different crops require different climate conditions to grow, and having little knowledge about climate heavily deteriorates the quantity and quality of crop production.

Thanks to modern technology, IoT solutions enable farmers to know real-time weather conditions. Various sensors in the framing fields collect data from the environment that farmers use to select a crop to grow in particular climatic conditions.

The entire climate monitoring IoT ecosystem consists of sensors that detect real-time weather conditions like humidity, rainfall, and temperature and foresees any drastic change in the climatic conditions. Furthermore, regular updates and notifications about climate change are sent to the server, which helps eliminate the need for physical presence.

5. Smart Greenhouses

Before we look at what smart greenhouses are, let us look at what a regular greenhouse is. In a nutshell, greenhouses control environmental factors through manual intervention or a proportional control mechanism.

However, manual interference in greenhouses leads to production loss, energy loss, and labour costs making the whole concept of greenhouses ineffective. It is the reason why smart houses are the better alternative.

With the help of IoT, various sensors are used in a smart greenhouse that measures the environmental factors and assesses their suitability for plants. Furthermore, the system is connected to the cloud with the help of IoT, thus enabling remote access.

6. Remote Sensing

Remote sensing is a true boon for farmers. It uses sensors placed along the farms, such as weather stations, for accumulating data that is carried forward to analytical tools for analysis.

With the help of remote sensing, farmers can monitor corps through analytical dashboards and take action from the insights derived accordingly. Let us look at the various things we can monitor remotely.

a. Soil Quality

One aspect of agriculture that farmers can remotely monitor is soil. Monitoring soil regularly is critical as the analysis of soil quality aids in deciding on the nutrient value and parched sections of farms, soil drainage capacity, or acidity. In addition, this information allows farmers to adjust the water level required for irrigation and select an advantageous type of cultivation.

b. Crop Assessment

Several sensors are placed in different corners of the farms to evaluate the crops and keep track of any alterations in the shape, size, light, humidity, and temperature to remotely monitor crops.

If the sensors note any changes (drastic or minor), the farmer is immediately notified, thus preventing disease spreads as well as keeping track of the advancement of crops.

7. Computer Imaging

Computer imaging mainly revolves around cameras and sensors placed in various corners of the farm to generate images that go through digital image processing. Let us look at a few applications of computer imaging in agriculture:

a. Irrigation Monitoring

There are several types of irrigation – drip irrigation, flood irrigation, sprinkler irrigation, manual irrigation, localised irrigation, and more. Every farmer opts for different methods based on the water availability in the area.

Over prolonged periods, computer imaging helps map irrigated lands, which helps in deciding during the pre-harvest season of harvesting.

b. Quality Control

When we combine image processing with powerful artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, we can use images from the database to compare with pictures of crops to conclude the size, shape, colour, and growth—as a result, adjusting the quality.

These are only a few applications of IoT in the agricultural sector. Computer imaging itself has a hundred more applications in farming. Nowadays, there is more technology involved in agriculture than in your typical 9-to-5 job.

Summary

You have now learned many applications where farmers can use IoT agriculture to meet the ever-growing demand for food. In this article, we have seen 7 examples: precision farming, livestock monitoring, agricultural drones, remote sensing, quality control, climate monitoring, and more.