The world’s agriculture industry is undergoing another revolution. Part of this involves adopting smart farming practices. Due to ongoing innovation through agritech software development services, the adoption of IoT technologies is vastly improving farming practices and contributing to more sustainable agriculture.

In this blog, we’ll walk through various use cases of IoT in agriculture practices.

How is IoT Utilized in Agriculture?

IoT-backed agritech software development collects data from a connected network of devices, sensors, and applications and derives insights into farming operations.

In farming, IoT technologies utilize sensors, robots, drones, devices, and data analysis, as mentioned below. 

  • IoT sensors collect real-time data on various parameters associated with crop health, plant density, irrigation needs, soil conditions, temperature, humidity, and nutrient levels. 
  • Robotics to fill the labor shortages increase efficiency in crop production and run fully automated farming processes.
  • IoT-enabled Drones to enable precision farming and enhance crop quality.

Use Cases of IoT in Agriculture

  • Precision Farming

IoT in agriculture enables farmers and agronomists to identify the exact amount of fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides required for a given field, contributing to precision farming.

Farmers may foresee and react to situations rapidly by receiving immediate crop reports via IoT-enabled technologies and providing holistic analysis of farming activities.

Integrating meteorological data, irrigation, fertilizers, and other systems enhances resource utilization and yields by accurately diagnosing and forecasting shortfalls.

  • Yield Monitoring And Crop Management

IoT devices provide remote field monitoring by allowing farmers to view field conditions in real-time from any location using mobile devices or laptops. 

This enables them to make informed decisions and take appropriate actions, such as changing irrigation or fertilizer schedules, which might impact crop yield.

Agriculture IoT systems also give frost warnings, irrigation alerts, and intrusion detection at all hours of the day and night, ensuring continuous crop monitoring, notification, surveillance, and protection.

  • Greenhouse management

Smart greenhouse automation with IoT enables operators to monitor both exterior and interior environmental variables. External factors (such as weather and temperature) also influence the greenhouse environment. Through agriculture IoT sensors, farmers can detect conditions that are ideal for the plants and help greenhouses reduce energy and water consumption, making the entire greenhouse run process more efficient. 

Smart greenhouses can be remotely controlled and observe the need to implement preventive actions to protect crops.

  • Smart Irrigation Systems

Smart irrigation uses connected devices and real-time data to optimize water usage in agriculture. The fundamental goal of a smart irrigation system is to extend beyond the basic function of water distribution. It includes numerous major objectives, such as water conservation, precision farming, enhanced agricultural output, and cost efficiency.

Smart irrigation systems using IoT technology can empower farmers around various aspects, such as,

– Collecting real-time water usage data using remote sensing technologies to make better irrigation decisions

– Gaining insights to avoid water waste and underutilization

– Detecting pipeline leaks and faults to resolve issues and minimize water wastage

  • Efficient Livestock Management

IoT-enabled livestock management solutions eliminate the guesswork in managing herd health, humidity, light intensity, and temperature on a large scale in animal farms. Battery-powered sensors use a wearable collar or tag to monitor animal position, temperature, blood pressure, and heart rate and wirelessly relay the data to farmers’ devices in near real-time.

Also read Everything you Need to Know About Agritech Software Solution

Final Words

IoT in agriculture has the potential to save crops.

Farmers can use IoT technologies, such as devices and their connecting applications, on the farm to assess soil moisture, temperature fluctuations, fertilizer availability, pH levels, and other parameters.  

By partnering with a leading agritech software development company, agro-businesses can increase yields, reduce water usage, lessen the need for pesticides and fertilizer, lower food costs, reduce runoff and resulting impact on natural ecosystems, and increase worker safety.