Smart farming is a management concept based on providing the agricultural industry with the infrastructure to use advanced technologies such as big data, the cloud and the Internet of Things (IoT) to track, monitor, automate and analyze operations. Smart farming is an emerging concept that refers to the management of farms that use modern information and communication technologies to increase the quantity and quality of the products while optimizing the human resources needed. While the name may sound fanciful and futuristic, Smart farming refers to precision farming, which uses technology to collect data and create smart farms.
The process of modernizing agricultural practices through the use of digital technologies has led to the emergence of new concepts such as precision agriculture, digital agriculture and smart farming. The term Intelligent Agriculture refers to the use of technologies such as IoT sensors (Internet of Things) on your farm, positioning systems, robots and artificial intelligence. Below we outline some IoT applications for agriculture and how the Internet of Things can help farms meet global food needs in the coming years.
At the heart of the IoT is the networking of intelligent machines and sensors that are integrated into farms to give agricultural processes data-driven and data-capable data that can be extracted from things like the T-Shirt and transmitted via the internet.
Big data’s ability to analyze vast amounts of data enables farmers to manage information from drones, the Internet of Things, and other measurement tools, and link it to farm historical and weather data to optimize every stage of the production process. Intelligent sensors monitor every aspect of daily work, and IoT solutions and technologies in agriculture allow farmers to automate real-time data collection, increase production volume, reduce costs, manage expenses and increase overall efficiency in many different aspects of agriculture. Farmers can use smart greenhouses and plant monitoring systems to leverage big data analysis to control crop spraying, irrigation, lighting, temperature, humidity and more.
Intelligent agriculture and precision farming are on the rise, and they are precursors to the increased use of technology in agriculture. Thanks to agricultural drones and sensors, smart farming is becoming increasingly common among farmers and high-tech farms are becoming standard.
Smart Farming uses hardware IoT solutions and software (SaaS) to collect data and provide actionable insights into farm operations before and after harvesting. Various IoT devices like moisture sensors that collect soil data and send it to the irrigation system keep the farm connected and efficient. Farmers not only see real-time statistics from the farm, but other equipment on the farm also collects data to make smart decisions independent of the farmer.
In the case of precision farming, intelligent farming techniques allow farmers to monitor the needs of each animal and adjust their diet to prevent disease and improve herd health. Based on the data generated by intelligent sensors, intelligent agricultural technologies contribute to general activity management. Smart farming has the real potential to produce a more productive and sustainable form of agricultural production based on a precise and resource-efficient approach.
Smart farming is the use of new technologies developed at the beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in agriculture and livestock farming to increase production volume and quality, make optimal use of resources and minimize environmental impacts. Intelligent agriculture is increasing in importance due to the combination of growing world population, increasing demand for higher crop yields, the need to use natural resources more efficiently, the increasing use and refinement of information and communication technologies and the growing need for climate-friendly agriculture. It is often referred to as the 40s Green Revolution in field agriculture – combines agricultural methods and technologies (sensors, actuators, information and communication technologies ( ICT)), Internet of Things ( IoT) and robotic drones) to achieve the desired production efficiency and control costs.
The significant amount of technology and data collection required for smart farming can be challenging. Farmers face challenges in investing in smart ecosystems of IoT due to poor performance of smart agricultural equipment, high vulnerability to hardware damage, high risk of data leaks and instability of communication between smart agricultural facilities.
In agriculture, food applications include farm management and traceability systems, information exchange on agricultural machinery (including fleet management in general and specifics), and the production, collection, aggregation and visualisation of life cycle data.
Precision agriculture, PA, satellite cultivation and site-specific crop management (SSCM) are farm management concepts based on the observation, measurement and response to variability between and within the field of crops. Intelligent agricultural sensors inform farmers about possible changes in weather, air, soil quality, moisture and other factors that may affect plant growth. The methodology of farmers, experts and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector enables the orientation of the many opportunities offered by precision farming and smart farming to find the best entrepreneurial and technological solutions.
The third Green Revolution is based on the combined application of data-driven analytics technologies such as precision agriculture, IoT, Big Data Analytics, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drones and robotics.