The world’s population is steadily growing and as per the United Nations estimate, roughly 83 million people are added to the global population every year. By 2050, the number of people on planet Earth is projected to reach 9.8 billion. To inclusively feed this massive population, it is imperative to have transformation in Agriculture with disruptions from next-generation technologies like the Internet of Things, AI, ML, Robotics etc. These latest technologies, especially IoT, not only provides a way to better measure and control growth factors, like irrigation, water and soil conservation, but, also changes how we view agriculture in its entirety.
Sensors installed on farming equipment can also collect data related to the weather, soil, pest, or hydration conditions, then send that data to a centralized smart farm platform. Fields can be levelled by IoT-controlled lasers so that water can be applied more efficiently and with less liquid waste running off into local streams and rivers. AI can also be used for predicting the behavior of pests which can be beneficial for advanced planning of pest control. Efficient pest management leads to lower crop and environmental damage. The result of these precision agriculture farming methods represents a boon for farmers in terms of resource use and effectiveness that holds great potential for making agriculture more sustainable.
CropMetrics, a precision irrigation company founded by farmers in 2009, has developed a smart farming solution that enables growers to effectively manage their crops’ irrigation. They begin by identifying a field’s variability using metrics such as soil type, texture, topography, slope, and yield. With these tools, farmers can create a custom irrigation plan that looks several days ahead, predicting exactly how much irrigation will be needed and where the water needs to go. With seamless end to end intelligent operations and improved business process execution, produce gets processed faster and reaches supermarkets in the quickest time possible.
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Smart Farming: How IoT-Driven Precision Agriculture Helps Feed the Globe