In this article, Claudia Jeffrey looks at the farming industry’s transformation using technology hacks.
Along with technological advancement in the whole world, farmers are also set to adopt changes and implement innovative technologies to compete with the world and boost their agricultural output.
Farmers are using smart appliances to enhance their processes and are improving significantly. They can now monitor their farms, crops, climate, and animals with the help of advanced devices.
Moreover, using AI, these devices recommend suggestions that help in decision making.
The technological transformation of the farming industry
Let us look at some of the latest technologies farmers are using in the industry.
Monitoring climatic conditions
Smart agriculture devices are very useful tools for farmers. They help them to monitor the climate conditions, choose suitable crops, and take the necessary steps to increase productivity.
These weather stations are made by combining various farming sensors. They are connected with the cloud and keep sending different data to the server.
Then this data is used to monitor numerous factors and help them make decisions which are also known as precision farming.
Greenhouse Automation
Greenhouses are usually controlled using manual intervention. Using IoT sensors, farmers can get accurate real-time data about greenhouse conditions such as lighting, humidity, soil condition and temperature.
Weather stations can automatically adjust the environment to match the given parameters, and smart sprinkler controllers allow growers to manage their irrigation and lighting systems remotely while monitoring plant growth.
This is a huge success in the transformation of the farming industry.
Crop management
These days, every farmer wants to produce healthy vegetables due to the increasing demand for organic food ingredients.
To get precise information regarding their crops, they use GPS technology so that they can take timely action if there is any unwanted situation or environmental change occurs.
This helps the crop to reduce the risk of disease spreading through its root system as well as keeping it safe from insects and pests.
Moreover, farmers place crop management devices in fields, which collects data regarding crops. It provides the farmer with crop health by measuring temperature and precipitation to leaf water potential.
Cattle monitoring And management
IoT enables farmers to track the herd’s location using a GPS tracking device. This device allows them to communicate with each other and share live data over GSM networks.
It notifies the owner about animal movement or absence anywhere. The devices have a sensor that measures the heart rate and blood oxygen levels of cattle. It also indicates the sick animals so that farmers can separate them to avoid contamination.
GPS tracking systems assist farmers in understanding livestock behaviour. Also, it shows where these animals are grazing which reduces staffing expenses.
Precision farming
The concept of precision farming is based on the development of computer-aided design (or CAD). Precision planting refers to using GPS-guided equipment to accurately place seeds based on predefined maps.
In this way, we know exactly what goes into the ground.
Farmers now have access to detailed information such as location, soil type, moisture level and much more. This data is helping a lot in the technological transformation of the farming industry.
With all this knowledge, they need only one thing: an innovative machine capable of doing the job right.
They do not need to go back to the office to check the exact amount of fertiliser needed because everything is automated using IoT.
As mentioned in one of the research papers conducted by a cheap essay writing service, CropX builds internet-connected soil sensors that measure soil conditions, including moisture, temperature, and electrical conductivity.
These sensors enable farmers to approach the needs of all unique crops. Furthermore, with geospatial data, precision farming technology helps in creating precise soil maps for each field.
Agricultural drones
Drones are used frequently in agriculture since they are able to provide valuable insights during the harvesting process.
They are considered safe and efficient to be used when a farmer needs accurate results without having to leave his home.
Farmers can make remote surveys and monitor their fields; thus, they will be aware when crops suffer from diseases. Moreover, farmers can set alerts whenever a drone flies near their farm.
The most common application of agricultural drones is an aerial survey of farmland before harvesting time.
Farmers can use drones to inspect their farms before the harvest season and plan ahead for optimum yield.
Along with that, you can use drones for fighting pets and infections by agricultural spray. This is where they save a lot of human efforts and farmers’ money.
Data security recommendations in the farming industry
Precision farming, along with IoT technology, produces large sets of data. This increases the potential security lacking, inviting data theft and cyber-attacks.
There is a lot that has to be done in the security area when it comes to transforming the farming industry.
For instance, there are many farmers who use internet-connected machines and drones, but these drones have zero to very little security. Farmers should take the following steps to ensure basic security.
- Monitor data traffic and analyse who is accessing the data and devices;
- Use encryption methods for protecting sensitive data;
- Leverage AI-based security tools which can detect suspicious activity;
- Store data in the blockchain for ensuring the integrity.
These are a few ways that can offer some security to the farmers’ data.
Conclusion
It is important to understand that the purpose of implementing technology for the transformation of the farming industry is not just automation to reduce labour costs.
It is about maximising efficiency and increasing food production. To achieve this, the technology used must be scalable. This includes low maintenance cost, easy installation, easy operation, affordable price, flexible functions, etc.
IoT is one key driver of precision agriculture.
We believe that the future of the farming industry depends heavily on the use of technologies like IoT, ML and AI.
Author Bio
Claudia Jeffrey is currently working as an editor at Crowd writer. Students often ask her to write my dissertation for me when requires. She takes pride in assisting pupils with their academic and professional careers.
