What are the benefits of smart agricultural monitoring solutions?

As one of the core sectors of the global economy, agriculture has the most dynamic IoT adoption rate. Among all IoT solutions, smart agricultural systems will undoubtedly stand out. In this article, we will take a closer look at the range of existing agricultural monitoring solutions and explore their benefits across various agricultural sub-sectors.

Current agricultural challenges

Agriculture is considered one of the most resource- and labor-intensive industries, and the challenges it faces include but are not limited to the following:

▲Regular maintenance of machinery

The agricultural industry relies heavily on machinery. Maintenance operations, even regularly scheduled, waste time and impact budgets. However, despite this, the element of unpredictability cannot be eliminated. Unexpected mechanical failure often results in unplanned downtime.

▲Correct water consumption estimation

Crops need water to grow, but the amount depends on soil moisture levels. To measure these levels, farmers must go into the field and make routine manual observations—alternatively, they can use smart sensing technology, which is currently more accurate, convenient, and time-saving.

▲Eliminate water waste and overhead costs

Failure to collect accurate soil moisture information can result in underwatering or overwatering of crops. Underwatered crops are dry and fragile, but overwatering wastes water and can lead to unpredictable expenses.

▲Estimating the correct planting time

Each crop has its own optimal time to plant, depending on a range of environmental factors. However, without accurate data, it is often difficult to correctly estimate this time.

▲Measuring soil temperature and moisture

Soil temperature and moisture levels are key indicators farmers need to collect to assess crop condition and take appropriate action. Unfortunately, they often cannot be measured correctly without an IoT agricultural monitoring system.

▲Pest control

Successful pest control involves detecting pests, their location, activities and behavioral patterns, which is another challenge farmers must face. This challenge would be difficult to address without an IoT-based pest control system.

Smart agriculture monitoring solution

IBM predicts that the use of IoT will increase farmers’ productivity by 70% by the end of 2050, so overall, the future looks optimistic. Regardless, IoT has a lot to offer in the agricultural industry.

Technological agriculture is a booming industry, and to this day, a wide range of smart farming systems enable farmers to cope with daily challenges. Planting, watering, crop harvesting and pest control – Farmland Monitor collects a range of metrics that farmers can use to effectively manage these tasks.

Here are some examples of smart agriculture monitoring solutions and how they work:

▲Soil condition monitoring

Soil condition is an important indicator that helps farmers determine the best time to plant seeds and harvest crops. With soil condition monitoring through IoT sensors, farmers can receive immediate alerts about soil moisture and salinity. Other indicators include soil temperature and air temperature: estimating them correctly allows farmers to plan watering times and know when pest infestations will appear. Soil condition monitoring requires a combination of hardware and software systems to operate in real time and alert users of any significant changes.

▲Weather monitoring

Agricultural meteorological monitoring is one of the most commonly used application areas of the Internet of Things. In crop cultivation, yields largely depend on the environment, which itself is unstable. Weather monitoring solutions located in the field, such as those used by weather stations, can alert farmers to changing weather conditions – temperature, precipitation, humidity, solar radiation and wind speed.

▲Greenhouse automation system

Fragile and sensitive greenhouse ecosystems require ongoing maintenance and control. Greenhouse automation smart farming solutions help maintain optimal microclimate conditions and manage lighting, humidity, carbon dioxide and temperature levels. Instant alerts and increased management capabilities maximize the efficiency of greenhouse growing.

▲Crop monitoring system

As crops grow and mature, many problems can arise: disease, insect infestation, or adverse environmental conditions can cause irreparable damage before farmers notice. Smart sensing technology is applied to crop monitoring, which can collect indicators of crop status (temperature, humidity, health) and enable farmers to take timely measures if any problems arise, and helps detect when crops are mature, allowing farmers to plan Exact harvest time.

▲Digital pest management

Pests and diseases are some of the pains farmers often face. Knowing when an infestation has arrived can be a challenge, but without frequent field visits, it’s impossible to determine their movement and location. Smart agricultural monitoring systems can solve these problems. Additionally, they help distribute the exact amount of pesticide needed to eliminate the infestation in each case.

▲Livestock monitoring system

In addition to crop and weather monitoring, agricultural monitoring solutions are also finding wider use in the livestock industry. Agritech solutions can help protect livestock by combining advanced IoT hardware, such as wearable devices based on smart sensing technology, with the latest IoT software. For example, cow collars are used to track the health, location and movement of cows. Agricultural remote sensing technology combined with advanced analytical software provides insights into dairy cow nutrition and overall herd health.

▲End-to-end farm management system

From greenhouses to pastures, entire farm areas can house smart agriculture sensors that serve as collection points for vital data to build powerful, comprehensive farm management systems. Of course, such systems should leverage advanced data analytics software and integrate seamlessly with accounting and procurement databases to provide insights and fully demonstrate their analytical potential.

Benefits of using IoT monitoring solutions in agriculture

IoT monitoring solutions are used for the following reasons:

▲Maximize productivity

Leveraging IoT for agricultural crop monitoring and taking timely measures to eliminate common threats can increase crop yields. In the livestock industry, the use of IoT monitoring can also help maximize productivity.

▲Improve quality

IoT monitoring systems help maintain optimal conditions to ensure better crop quality. For example, weather monitoring in agriculture helps estimate the accurate supply of water, fertilizers and nutrients needed to grow high-quality crops. Compared with other products, agricultural products grown using IoT monitoring systems are also more in line with market regulations.

▲Reduce the need for pesticides

Not only are pesticides toxic, they also involve costs. Smart pest monitoring systems significantly reduce the need for pesticides, the costs involved, and the impact of chemicals on the environment and human health.

▲Predictability and control

Driven by real-time agricultural monitoring, data analytics can predict optimal harvest times and ensure the security of supply contracts. Over time, farmers’ control of markets helps make the agricultural production process more manageable.

▲Higher sales price

Clearly, greener, healthier products grown using the latest agricultural technology will have higher sales prices and ultimately bring in more revenue.

▲Future predictions

By collecting and processing smart agriculture data, farmers can predict the future state of soil and environment and plan next year’s crops. Therefore, predictive analytics enables them to make calculated farm management decisions and plan for the coming years.

Advanced IoT-based agricultural monitoring systems reduce costs, maximize efficiency, help farmers make data-driven decisions, and ultimately drive crop and livestock practices to higher ethical and professional levels. Although implementing a smart monitoring system takes time and investment, it is well worth it in the long run.