What is the future of high-tech farming?
What is the future of high-tech farming?
With advancing technology comes societal progression, and one such technology – the Internet of Things (IoT) – has meant that interconnected devices are an everyday aspect of modern life, in sectors such as smart homes, health and fitness, industrial automation and so much more.
Therefore, it was only a matter of time before businesses like ourselves recognised that smart technology and automation could revolutionise the agricultural industry and improve processes that have been performed manually for thousands of years.
In the past few decades farming has undergone a number of revolutionary transformations, paving the way for agricultural systems that rely on innovation and technology to improve yield and push for sustainable food production and livestock management.
In this article, we’ll be exploring how new and current technologies will continue to impact agriculture and examine why they are beneficial.
What is Smart Agriculture?
Smart agriculture is usually defined as the application of IoT within agriculture, but what does that really mean?
Farmers and growers can utilise IoT sensors and information harvesting technology to gather environmental data and metrics to allow them to make smarter decisions, which improves just about every aspect of their operation – whether that be dairy farming right through to planting rotational crops; everything is recorded.
For instance, if a farmer decides to adopt smart technologies in the future to monitor crop growth, they can begin to understand what each crop needs to thrive during that particular season, taking into account weather conditions, flood risk and pest prevalence.
Industry Outlook
The adoption of IoT solutions for agriculture has grown considerably since the beginning of the pandemic.
This is because there have been various disruptions in the supply chain and the shortage of workers due to Brexit-related complications. In fact, according to the Barclays AI Insights for Agriculture, 47% of farmers believe that COVID has impacted their operations.
However, this lag has also encouraged 45% of UK agricultural specialists to invest in technologies to fuel innovation in their operations.
The global picture looks similarly positive, with the size of the smart agricultural market expected to more than triple in size by 2026 to $20.8 billion, whereas the market was worth just over $5 billion five years ago.
Because the market is continuing to develop, there are many opportunities for businesses that are looking to set their operations apart in the coming years.
How Can Smart Agriculture Transform the Industry?
IoT technology has changed a multitude of industries, such as manufacturing and transportation, among others.
We believe there are five core benefits for adopting smart agriculture:
● Data – the wealth of data that can be collected by smart sensors, such as soil quality, weather conditions, crop progression, or animal health. Not only does this data give you insight into your operation from an agricultural perspective, but you can also gain a good overview of how the business side is performing.
● Control – if you have a greater grasp of your internal processes, as a result, you will improve your production rate. For instance, if you’re able to foresee how production may play out under certain conditions, you know how much product you will need to harvest and distribute.
● Costs – predicting any irregularities during crop growth, means that you’ll be able to counter the potential of losing entire crops and therefore reduce waste and costs.
● Efficiency – when using smart devices, you can automate a range of processes throughout the production cycle. In the case of our Ostara indoor farming software, you can manage day and night cycles, nutrient distribution and temperatures. In an outdoor setting, this could mean automating processes such as irrigation, fertilisation and pest management.
● Quality – by harnessing this control over the production process, you can maintain high-quality no matter your growth capacity.
Smart Agriculture Technology
There are many products and technologies that have, or are being developed to improve the agricultural processes.
Vertical Farming
Previously, farmers would need to manage their outdoor space and try to manage any damage to crops caused by the varying weather patterns or pests.
However, by utilising a vertical farming solution, they can grow a range of crops within a simulated environment that mimics ideal growing conditions and isn’t subject to damaging weather patterns or crop-destroying pests.
Utilising indoor growing means that growers can collate real-time data and control lighting, temperature, nutrient application and humidity.
Climate Monitoring
One of the most popular and widely used gadgets for smart agriculture are smart weather stations, which are used to collect an array of data for the modern agricultural professional.
When situated across pastures and fields, they can pull in various data points from their surroundings and upload it into the cloud.
This data can be used to map climate conditions, incoming weather fronts and even suggest the ideal crops for those conditions and give the user more information on how to make better decisions for each season of the year.
Cattle Management
Just like environmental monitoring, there are also sensors and technologies that can monitor livestock location and their health and wellbeing.
These can be attached to livestock, similar to the way pet collar trackers are used, to offer real-time updates on physical health and location.
By using this technology farmers can identify any animals that may be unwell, so their health can be monitored, and any infectious illness can be foreseen before any other animals may contract the disease.
Drones
In the coming years all farming operations are likely to have agricultural drones within their smart infrastructure. Drones are well equipped to collate data and survey the land.
This means drones will be able to perform a wide range of tasks that would have once required considerable input from humans, such as planting crops, fighting pests, and monitoring crops from all angles without anyone physically needing to inspect each plant.
Predictive Farming
Improving yield and the overall health of a farming operation will go hand in hand with predictive farming, just in the same way that manufacturing companies now rely on IoT to predict problems with their machinery well ahead of time.
Smart sensors and IoT can offer an array of absolutely crucial data. By understanding this data, farmers can begin to make important predictions on the future of their operation, such as how long a crop might to grow before harvesting, the likelihood of disease and pests, yield, and much, much more.
Analysing this data can help break farming, which is inherently dependent on weather conditions and other environmental factors, down into a more manageable, and predictable process.
Takeaways
In this article, we’ve explored exactly how IoT can be used to truly benefit a sector that has traditionally been slow to adopt new technology.
Of course, with the next Industrial Revolution just around the corner, who knows what new tech could propel agriculture to the forefront of technological innovation.
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