What are the benefits and challenges of IoT in agriculture?
A system is created in the Internet of Things (IoT)-based smart farming to monitor the agricultural field using sensors for light, humidity, temperature, soil moisture, etc., and automate the irrigation system. IoT integrates several technologies, including wireless communication, embedded systems, networks, sensors, actuators, embedded systems, embedded systems, and web technologies.
Even if there are many advantages to using IoT in the agriculture industry, some things could be improved. Lack of information, high adoption costs, security issues, and other issues are the biggest problems that IoT in agriculture faces. Most farmers need to be made aware of IoT’s use in farming. A significant issue is that some reject novel concepts and refuse to accept them, even though they provide multiple advantages. The best thing that can be done to increase awareness of the impact of IoT is to show farmers how to use IoT devices like drones, sensors, and other technologies and how they could make their jobs easier.
Benefits of IoT in Agriculture
- Enhanced data collecting boosts agricultural productivity
IoT-enabled agricultural solutions give farmers the ability to closely monitor the circumstances and their goods in real time while also gathering vital information on the weather, land, crop, and livestock conditions, among other things. Farmers are able to quickly get new insights and anticipate problems even before they arise because of the rapid data collecting. Therefore, farmers may decide what to do and figure out how to prevent complications. With the advent of IoT technologies that automate the farming process, farming efficiency increases—for instance, depending on demand, irrigation, robot harvesting, and fertilizing.
- Resource management
Using IoT in agriculture aims to maximize water, energy, and land use. IoT-based precision farming makes it feasible to gather real-time data from various field sensors swiftly. Farmers utilize the data to manage resources for efficient agriculture and make informed decisions.
- End-to-end production management
The agricultural IoT solutions improve the flexibility of farming operations. Farmers can easily regulate every step of the crop production process thanks to the forecast and real-time monitoring systems. Farmers can react swiftly to humidity, air quality, and weather variations. As a result, farmers control how their crops are produced, enabling damage mitigation.
- Less waste and better cost control
Agriculture’s hazards are reduced with the use of IoT technologies. Farmers may decrease waste and keep expenses under control while improving productivity by rapidly spotting anomalies and discrepancies in crop production.
- Cleaner method lowering carbon emissions
IoT-enabled smart farming is a natural way to reduce the need for pesticides and fertilizers. With precision farming, farmers can reduce their energy and water use and produce more sustainably. Compared to traditional farming approaches, the strategy guarantees a more organic and healthy result. Additionally, the entire carbon impact is decreased.
- Automation of processes
Agriculture and manual labor were once closely related. IoT and intelligent farming have considerably decreased the need for physical work. Farmers have remote control over increasingly automated procedures, including irrigation, fertilization, and insect management. Smart IoT sensors can keep these processes going and boost crop productivity.
Farmers’ Obstacles to Adopting IoT for Agriculture
- Insufficient Infrastructure: Due to inadequate connectivity infrastructure, farmers will only be able to benefit from IoT technology if they use it. Farms are situated in isolated locations with little internet connectivity. Connection troubles would render a sophisticated monitoring system ineffective since farmers want reliable access to agricultural data at all times and anywhere.
- Pricey Equipment: IoT in agriculture requires expensive equipment. Automated equipment is more expensive than manually operated equipment since it requires farm management software and cloud storage to store data. Farmers need to invest in these technologies to increase their revenues. Still, they would need more time to make the initial expenditure necessary to set up IoT equipment on their farms.
- Lack of Security: Because IoT devices communicate with older technology, they have access to the internet. However, there is no assurance that they would be able to acquire sensor readouts or drone mapping data by utilizing a public connection. IoT agriculture equipment captures a vast quantity of data that is challenging to secure. The data from IoT companies’ databases might be stolen and altered by someone with unauthorized access.
Conclusion
Although IoT goods may differ from farm to farm, farmers who want to stay competitive must fully consider employing these solutions.
