How to Leverage IoT in Agriculture

Drones, self-driving vehicles, and VR devices. Did you imagine a cyberpunk city? Well, you can also see them at modern farms today.  As the popularity of smart devices across various industries grows, they conquer new areas. IoT systems are widely used in healthcare, logistics, home automation. With increasing food demand, it becomes impossible to underestimate the importance of IoT in agriculture.

Farmers optimize their workflows by using technology-based solutions and modern agriculture gadgets. It allows them to raise livestock and grow crops more efficiently, thus contributing to their business growth.

In this article, WebbyLab’s expert will explain how IoT applications in agriculture can help you meet the growing demand and scale up your business. We will analyze the key advantages of IoT devices in agriculture and their uses. To illustrate these points, we will draw on our experience in the domain that includes building a smart greenhouse system based on the 2Smart Standalone platform.

The hardware center of the smart greenhouse system built by WebbyLab

What Is IoT in Farming?

Smart farming involves using software products and IoT devices to improve the efficiency of an agricultural business and make it more profitable. The Internet of Things in agriculture becomes possible as more special devices are fitted with sensors. With them, farmers can measure and track the water level and weather conditions, among many other things. Thanks to the information collected by smart devices, farmers can make decisions based on facts.

When talking about smart solutions in farming, researchers usually focus on IoT applications for agriculture. 

IoT devices with sensors help farmers to collect information that helps them improve their processes and conduct operations more efficiently. For instance, using such devices, farmers can decide how many fertilizers they need to use to achieve the desired result.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the market share of IoT in the agricultural sector has quickly increased. The size of the smart agriculture market reached $12.9 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow to $20.8 billion by 2026.

Let’s take a look at the main reasons companies get interested in developing custom IoT solutions for agriculture.

The Main Impact of IoT on Agriculture

Companies can hugely benefit from IoT in farming if they use smart devices with sensors to collect information that improves their planning and operations. Below, we have outlined the main advantages of IoT for the agricultural sector.

Large Amounts of Data

Using dedicated software, farmers can collect data on the efficiency of the technologies and equipment they are using. It allows them to select the best farming methods and learn how to improve the living conditions of their livestock.

Businesses can use self-driving vehicles, sensor devices, robots, and drones to collect and process the necessary data using special software. If you decide to set up an IoT system, you may need to learn how to manage a project in 5 steps.

Process Automation

One of the key advantages of implementing IoT in agriculture market is that such solutions enable companies to automate processes and make their operations less time-consuming. You can use such tools to control irrigation and fertilizing processes, among many others.

High Product Quality

Information collected with the help of IoT devices helps companies improve the production process and the quality of crops. Using edgy technology, professionals can make high-accuracy predictions and manage processes more efficiently, which results in excellent product quality.

Minimization of Risks

Thanks to the information collected by IoT devices, companies can mitigate risks and estimate the amount of production they are going to release during a specific period. By organizing large amounts of data and centralizing access to it, they can solve possible issues more efficiently. Make sure to learn more about the reasons for building an IoT app in our article.

Top IoT Smart Solutions in Agriculture

If you take a closer look at the applications of IoT and agriculture, you will see that smart solutions cover the following needs:

• analyze climate conditions and their impact on crops, 
• monitor and track crop and soil conditions,
• make farming practices more precise and data-driven, 
• improve the efficiency of greenhouses, 

Climate Analysis

If you have a farm, it’s crucial to learn more about climate conditions to improve crop production. Using the gathered data, you can base your decisions on real-time conditions and predict whether your crops will be able to withstand severe weather. 

By performing monitoring, you can predict future developments and send alerts to your personnel to manage issues more quickly. There is no need to be physically present to analyze temperature, humidity, or wind, as the process is fully automated.

Precise Practices 

In the agro sector, nothing is more important than accurate data that allows a farmer to monitor livestock, track vehicles, manage inventory, and perform other tasks. Using accurate data, farmers can make informed decisions and manage processes more effectively.

IoT Greenhouse

One of the best examples of the usage of IoT technologies in agriculture is a smart greenhouse. After connecting weather stations to monitoring devices, you can automatically configure climate conditions. Companies can manage fully automated greenhouses without any human input, which makes them great value for the money.

WebbyLab has created a smart greenhouse system based on the 2Smart Standalone automation platform. The system utilizes data from various sensors that measure temperature, humidity, and CO2 level. We connected controlled devices measuring lighting, watering, fertilization, and ventilation into a single system using different IoT protocols (Modbus, Zigbee, KNX). Read on to learn more about the project.

Hardware connected to the smart greenhouse’s mini-computer

Tools for Analyzing Data

Regular databases don’t allow users to effectively manage and analyze data gathered with the help of an Internet-of-Things system. Using cloud-based platforms, you can build an efficient smart agriculture solution to make better decisions about your business. You will get updates about the status of your crops and livestock, which will allow you to improve the quality of your products.

The Usage of Drones

The introduction of drones has fully transformed the agricultural industry. These days, companies use ground and aerial drones to monitor crops, treat them against pests, apply fertilizers, gather information about climate conditions, and perform field analysis. 

Drones fitted with multispectral sensors can detect the areas of the field with some irrigation issues. In addition, they can measure the health of crops.

Top Examples of IoT-based Agricultural Projects

There are many excellent examples of IoT projects in agriculture and technology. Companies can use them as sources of inspiration when launching new projects.

CropX

This solution was created for monitoring the condition of the soil. It notifies farmers when the soil requires irrigation. This system includes software and hardware components, which allow it to gather, analyze, and visualize data in an easy-to-understand way. The collected data is analyzed in the cloud. Then, users can access it via a mobile app or a website.

365FarmNet

This SaaS platform is used by agricultural businesses of all kinds as it aims to provide full support and farm management services 365 days per year. Using it, companies can monitor animal welfare to see whether farm animals require treatment.

It also has tools for controlling processes and performing data-driven planning. CLAAS, a world-known manufacturer of agricultural equipment, has established a partnership with 365FarmNet.

PrecisionHawk

This platform is invaluable for those who need to gather data with the help of drones. All the collected information is analyzed with the help of this software. Thanks to it, drones can analyze weather conditions and select the best route based on this information.

JMB

This example of IoT technology in agriculture is perfect for monitoring cow pregnancy. Farmers utilize it to estimate when a cow is about to give birth.

IoT implementation Challenges in the Agriculture Sector

Despite the obvious benefits of IoT for agriculture, companies that strive to leverage this technology might face unexpected challenges if they are unprepared. The factors described below slow down the mass adoption of this technology.

IoT Solutions are Expensive

These days, it’s mostly large companies that benefit from using IoT systems in agriculture as such solutions require capital investment. One of the main challenges of this technology is that its implementation is difficult and costly. 

If you own a small company and want to use precision farming technology, keep in mind that it might be too expensive to install and maintain multiple sensors, create a monitoring app, and use cloud-based services.

Limited Network Coverage in Rural Areas

In some locations, mobile network coverage remains insufficient. This problem might become a real issue for farms located in Africa and Asia. An app has to transmit large volumes of data, which requires a stable internet connection.

Data Security Issues

It’s crucial for companies to prevent unauthorized access to their data. If you need to work with sensitive information, it’s important to ensure that other companies won’t be able to access it. This is why it’s crucial to use services provided by trusted companies that specialize in Internet of Things and agriculture solutions. 

WebbyLab provides a range of IoT software development services to help companies benefit from this technology without compromising their data.

The Future of Using IoT in Agriculture

In the future, the importance of IoT for farmers is expected to grow even more. AgTech and precision farming are key to tackling the emerging food crisis and growing demand for agricultural products. This industry will benefit from leveraging blockchain technology. It will allow companies to get more precise information on crops and store it securely using blockchain.

The number of agricultural sensors installed worldwide is expected to increase as well, thus providing farms with new data points for getting highly-accurate data. 

While drones are already widely used in the agricultural sector, their role will increase. Besides, they will transfer information using satellites. It will make it easier to monitor crops and spray them with fertilizer using drones.

Entrust WebbyLab with Building an IoT Solution for your Agricultural Business

Being a well-established company with over ten years of experience, WebbyLab can build an IoT application for your business from scratch or improve the functionality of an existing solution. 

We worked on projects for Fortune 500 companies and completed over 300 projects. Our company also provides consultancy services and follows five main steps for IoT devices development.

Smart Greenhouse Project

The experts from our team have profound experience in implementing IoT in agriculture. The abovementioned smart greenhouse project is a testimony to that.

A greenhouse is divided into separate sectors with a unique microclimate. To configure the parameters of a greenhouse, you can use a tablet with a 2Smart Standalone dashboard. However, you can control the system from anywhere around the globe by integrating whitelabel mobile app.

All the historical sensor values are stored in the database of the platform. To analyze this data, you can use a web-based service Grafana that integrates with standalone. Using it, professionals can quickly analyze the conditions in a greenhouse.

Precision agriculture techniques are also aimed at process automation, although the scale of such systems is larger and measured in hectares. To scale up our system, you just need the right sensors and IoT protocols. For instance, LoRaWAN is perfectly suitable for creating long-range networks.

As the Standalone platform supports different custom scenarios, it is suitable for companies that strive to scale up their systems. It enables them to solve any issue they might face along the way. 

Final Thoughts

The importance of IoT for farming businesses is expected to grow in the future. This is why it’s crucial to start implementing IoT solutions today to improve the efficiency of processes by automating data gathering and analysis. The professionals working for WebbyLab know how to leverage IoT technology and make agricultural businesses more efficient.

You can take a closer look at the cases in our portfolio to learn more about the technologies we use when working on our projects. Alternatively, you can drop us a line and describe what issues you need to solve. Contact our team and get an IoT application that will help you scale up your business.