IOT Driving Smart Agriculture

The Internet of Things (IoT) is enabling data-driven smart agriculture

The Internet of Things (IoT) is enabling data-driven smart agriculture. The IoT is a network of technologies which can monitor the status of physical and other objects, capture meaningful data, and communicate that data over a wireless network to a computer in the cloud for software to analyze and help determine action steps.  Typically, each data transmission from a device is small in size but the number of transmissions can be frequent. IoT involves many, many things interacting with each other to produce actionable information.

In crop farming, data analytics software can provide actionable information by combining information on current weather, the slope of the land, type of soil and exposure to sunshine with data captured by sensors measuring moisture, heat, chemicals and other conditions. Each sensor can monitor a specific condition or set of conditions. Water, fertilizer, and pesticides can be applied in more precise quantities and locations and with better timing which will increase yields.

The IoT can help alleviate food shortages by enabling more intensive use of farm land that results in higher outputs. The IoT can also help livestock farming or ranching be more productive in the use of water, energy, food and other resources and even help track the location of livestock. More IoT applications have become feasible because the cost and size of sensor devices continues to decrease and their sophistication for measuring conditions keeps increasing. 

Water and energy are the most important inputs for agriculture and their costs can make or break an agricultural business. Agriculture is very energy intensive.  The IoT can result in more effective energy use for pumps, boosters, lighting and other purposes. The IoT can also help water use be more productive based on the type of soil and other conditions.  In California, agriculture consumes about 40% of the freshwater available with a large amount  of water being wasted by leaky irrigation systems, inefficient field application methods and the planting of water intensive crops in the wrong growing location. The IoT can make water use smarter for agriculture in irrigation efficiency and lower costs by monitoring and changing water volume, location timing and duration of flow based on data analytics.

An IoT network can remotely determine the status and working condition of equipment (open or closed, on or off, full or empty, etc.).  The information can be actionable so a gate can be opened or closed or an irrigation pump turned on or off remotely to adjust the flow of water or to save energy or to take advantage of time-of-use energy pricing. Pumps, gates and other equipment can be monitored for vibration and other indications that maintenance or replacement is needed.

Source: Svagtech 

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