Agriculture is one of the oldest industries. Whatever is said, but to engage in self-development you have to eat well first. In order for us to be able to eat something at the computer while coding a smart application, someone has to grow and cook food. Therefore, the rapid development of agriculture is obvious. It is the industry, in which many startups, smart devices and technology are used to facilitate and speed up the process of getting products to our tables.
"Smart farming" (digital farming) is a new concept that applies to farm management using technologies such as Internet of Things, robotics, drones and artificial intelligence in order to increase the quantity and quality of products as well as optimize the needed human resources required for production. The Internet of Things has provided ways of improving almost every industry.
The main purposes of the usage of technology are process automation, obtaining more accurate and faster data, the ability to calculate needs and opportunities, environment friendly production, better management and logistics.
Even though the Smart farming is becoming more and more popular nowadays, the speed of its implementation is influenced by many factors:
SMART IOT-BASED AGRICULTURE CYCLE
The devices have to collect and process data in a repetitive cycle in order for farms’ operation to be optimized. The data from these devices is transmitted through the Internet. This allows farmers to respond to problems, changes in environmental conditions or obtain statistics instantly.
Smart farming follows this cycle:
This chart shows the amount of fresh vegetables produced in the United States from 2002 to 2008. The figures are considerable and remain almost on the same level. This demonstrates the need of the latest technology and smart farming for agriculture at least to make a breakthrough.
What are the main areas for appliance IoT in agriculture?
IoT agricultural solutions consist of several monitoring, controlling and tracking programs that measure several types of variables, such as air monitoring, temperature monitoring, humidity monitoring, soil monitoring, water monitoring and controlling, fertilization, pest controlling, lighting control and location tracking. Most research focuses on monitoring (70%), control (25%) and tracking (5%).
The scope of IoT can be classified in even more detail. This information can be useful for people who are going to create applications and devices for the agricultural sector. The figure shows the priorities and percentages of the usage of a particular sphere.
The Embrox team developed an agricultural device as well.
This device is used in fields during harvesting. Its main function is to identify pickers, harvest and pack time. All collected data is uploaded to the cloud.
CHALLENGES
APPROACH
If you are looking for an idea for a startup, the agricultural industry is the best choice as a lot of technology is needed there. Here your work will definitely matter, because the need for food will always remain, no matter how the world will change.