As we know, agriculture plays a vital role in manufacturing and for livelihood. So, in this Internet of Things Applications in Agriculture, we are going to look at the benefits of IoT in agriculture area.
So, let us start with IoT Applications in Agriculture.
What are the IoT Applications in Agriculture?
The Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential to transform the ways we live in the planet; we have more-efficient businesses, more linked cars, and smarter cities, all these as components of an integrated IoT system.
The ever-growing global population could reach around 9.6 billion by 2050. So, to feed this immense population, the agriculture industry needs to embrace IoT. The demand for more food has to fulfill overcoming difficult obstacles such as, rising climate change, extreme weather conditions and environmental impact that results from intensive farming practices.
Internet of Things Applications in Agriculture
Smart farming via the utilization of IoT technology will help farmers to decrease generated wastes and enhance productivity. That can come from the quantity of fertilizer that has been utilized to the number of journeys the farm vehicles have made.
Smart farming is basically a hi-tech system of developing food that is clean and is sustainable for the masses. It is the induction as well as the application of modern ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) to agriculture.
Precision Farming
Precision farming is a procedure or a practice that makes the farming process more accurate and controlled for raising livestock and growth of plants. The use of IT and objects like sensors, autonomous vehicles, automated hardware, control systems, robotics, etc within this approach are crucial components.
Precision agriculture in the recent years has become one of the most famous applications of IoT in agricultural sector and a vast number of organizations have started applying this technique around the world.
The products and services offered by IoT systems comprise soil moisture probes, VRI optimization, virtual optimizer PRO, and so forth. VRI (Variable Rate Irrigation) optimization is a process that maximizes the profitability on irrigated crop fields with soil variability, thereby improving returns and increasing water use efficiency.
Agriculture Drones
Agricultural drones are a very good example of IoT applications in Agriculture. Agriculture industries today, have become one of the major businesses where drones can incorporate.
There are two types of drones, that is, ground-based and aerial-based drones are being incorporated in agriculture in many ways such as, for harvest health assessment, irrigation, planting, and soil & field analysis.
The benefits that the usage of drones brings to the table include, ease of usage, time-saving, crop health imaging, integrated GIS mapping, and the ability to increase returns. The drone technology will give a high-tech makeover to the agriculture industry by making use of strategy and planning based on real-time data collection and processing.
The farmers through drones can enter the details of what field they want to survey. Choose an altitude or ground resolution from which they what data of the fields.
From the data accumulated by the drone, useful insights can be drawn on various factors such as plant counting and return forecast, plant health indices, plant height measurement, canopy cover mapping, nitrogen content from wheat, drainage mapping, and so on.
The drone collects data and images that are thermal, multispectral and visual throughout the flight and then lands at the same location it took off initially.
Livestock Monitoring
IoT applications help farmers to collect data regarding the location, well-being, and health of their cattle. This information helps them in identifying the condition of their possessions. Such as, finding animals that are sick so, that they can separate from the herd, preventing the spread of the disease to the entire cattle.
The feasibility of ranchers to locate their cattle with the support of IoT based sensors aids in bringing down labor costs by a substantial amount.
One example of an IoT system in use by a company is JMB North America. That is an organization that provides cow monitoring solutions to cattle producers?
Out of the many solutions provided, one of the solutions is to help the cattle owners discover their cattle that are pregnant and about to give birth. From them, a battery that is sensor powered is discharged when its water breaks. An information is then delivered into the herd manager or the rancher. The sensor thus enables farmers will more focus.
Smart Greenhouses
Greenhouse farming is a technique that enhances the yield of plants, vegetables, fruits etc.. Greenhouses control environmental parameters in two ways; either via manual intervention or a proportional control mechanism.
But because manual intervention has disadvantages such as production loss, energy reduction, and labor cost, these approaches are less effective. A smart greenhouse through IoT embedded systems not just tracks intelligently but also controls the climate. Thereby eliminating any requirement for human intervention.
Different sensors that measure the environmental parameters according to the plant demand are utilized for controlling the environment in a smart greenhouse. Then, a cloud server create for remotely accessing the system when it connects using IoT.
Within the greenhouse, the cloud host aids in the processing of data and applies a control action. This design provides optimal and cost-effective solutions to the farmers with minimal and almost no manual intervention.
The sensors in the IoT system in the greenhouse supply information about temperature, humidity, pressure, light amounts.
