The Internet of Things (IoT) offers solutions for almost every industry imaginable. In the agricultural sector, IoT not only provides solutions for time-consuming, tedious tasks, but also revolutionizes the future of agriculture.
What is a smart farm?
Smart agriculture refers to the use of computers and wireless communication technology to manage farms to improve the yield and quality of agricultural products while reducing labor costs.
Technologies used in today's smart farms include:
Sensor technology: collecting soil, water, light, humidity, temperature data
Platform software: dedicated software solutions for IoT platforms that are independent of specific farm types or applications
Wireless transmission: 5G, LoRa, NB-IOT, WiFi, Bluetooth, ZigBee and other technologies
Satellite positioning technology: obtaining livestock movement trajectory data through positioning technology.
Automated machinery: completing land operations through automated machinery
Data analysis technology: analyzing farm environment, yield and other data to facilitate managers to adjust operation methods in real time.
With these technologies, farmers can remotely monitor field conditions and adjust management methods for the entire farm or individual crops. The Internet of Things is the driving force of smart agriculture. The Internet of Things makes the agricultural production process more automated by connecting mechanical equipment and sensors on the farm.
The core of the Internet of Things is that we can obtain data and transmit data through the Internet. In order to optimize the agricultural production process, the IoT devices installed on the smart farm will collect and process data according to the set cycle, allowing farm managers to respond quickly to environmental changes.
Smart Solutions for Smart Agriculture
Many believe that IoT can add value to all areas of agriculture. While there are many ways that IoT can optimize agricultural production, two major ways that IoT can revolutionize agriculture are precision farming and agricultural automation.
Precision Agriculture
Precision agriculture makes agricultural production more controllable and precise. In short, plants can be cultivated in a precise way. Precision agriculture can make decisions on a per square meter or even per plant basis, which is in stark contrast to the traditional cultivation method of making decisions on the entire farmland. By accurately measuring the environmental changes in the farmland, agricultural production can reasonably allocate the amount of pesticides and fertilizers to achieve the optimal amount of fertilizer application and obtain the highest yield at the lowest cost.
Precision Animal Husbandry
Like precision agriculture, smart agricultural technology enables farmers to better monitor the health status of individual animals and adjust the amount of feed accordingly, thereby preventing diseases and enhancing the health of the herd. Large farms can use wireless IoT applications to monitor the location and health of livestock. With this information, they can quickly identify the health status of animals so that they can be treated quickly.
Smart Greenhouse Automation
Traditional greenhouses control environmental parameters through manual intervention, which often leads to very high production and labor costs. Smart greenhouses driven by IoT technology can intelligently monitor and control environmental temperature and humidity without manual intervention, and deploy various sensors to measure environmental parameters according to the specific requirements of crops. This data is stored in the cloud platform for further processing and control.
IoT-based smart agriculture is not just for large-scale agricultural production. It can add value to emerging trends in agriculture, such as organic farming, family farming, including raising specific cattle and sheep and growing specific crops, preserving high-quality varieties, and enhancing the high transparency of agriculture to consumers, society, and market awareness.
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