Introduction to IoT In Agriculture

in

griculture

S M A R T F A R M I N G A N D A G R I C U LT U R E T O D AY

C O N N E C T I V I T Y S E N S O R S & H A R D W A R E

B I G D ATA & A I

P E O P L E A N D P L AT F O R M S

oT U S E C A S E S I N A G R I C U LT U R E

W H Y I N V E S T I N I O T F O R A G R I C U LT U R E

H O W C A N M O M E N TA P A R T N E R S H E L P Y O U S U C C E E D ?

R E F E R E N C E S

G R I C U LT U R E T O D AY

In the United States, there are approximately 2.06 million farms currently in operation.1 This is a drastic contrast to the 1.8 million farms in operation 80 years ago. Interestingly, the total farm output has more than doubled between 1948 and 2015, mostly due to technological developments driving change.

In today’s ever-connected world, with broad deployment of Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) such as LoRaWAN today, and 5G networks expected to roll out nationwide by 2020, the Internet of Things (IoT) is already having a profound effect on many industries that aren’t necessarily thought of as “techie.” IoT is already a driving force behind predictive and real-time access to agricultural insights, enabling “Smart Farming”— including intelligent assistance in implementation, maintenance

as everything that makes the practice of farming more accurate and controlled when it comes to the growing of crops and raising livestock.

The next several years will see an increasing use of these and other smart farming technologies, which utilize connectivity to help those in the agricultural space produce more and spend less. In fact, IoT device installations in the agriculture world are projected to experience a compounded annual growth rate of 20 percent.2 Some of today’s IoT applications in agriculture, which are responsible for increased production at a lower cost, include farm vehicle tracking, livestock monitoring, storage monitoring, and much more.

Mor e than 50 per cent of today ’s far mer s use at l east one pr eci sion far ming pr a ctice 3 E xampl es of the way I oT is enabling Smar t Far ming and Pr ecisi on A gr icul tur e incl ude:

Li vestock sensor s that can noti f y rancher s when ani mal s have r oamed fr om the her d so that r anch hands can r ound them up.

Soil sensor s that can al er t far mer s to ir r egular condi ti ons like high a ci dit y, gi ving the far mer time to r econ cil e the issue and pr oduce bet ter cr ops

Sel f dr i ving tr a ctor s that can be contr oll ed r emotel y,

I t is wi del y agr eed that incr eased pr oducti vit y, ar ising fr om innovation and changes in technol og y, is the main contr ibutor to economic gr owth in US agr icul tur e 4 To bet ter under st and the immense oppor tunities that I oT br ings to the agr icul tur al indus tr y we will expl or e the foll owing fundament al component s:

• C onnecti vit y

• Sensor s & Har dwar e

• Big Dat a & AI

• Peopl e & Plat for ms

I N

C O N N E C T I V I T Y

When it comes t o connecti vi ty for agri cultu r a l IoT usage, the r e a r e two opti ons t hat a r e vi able to implement for Smart Fa rmin g a nd P r eci sion Agri cult ure act i vi t i es: LoRaW AN and cellul a r te chnol ogi es such as NB-IOT

LoR aWA N is a l ow-power , wi de-ar ea networ k t hat i s ideal for t hi s indust r y.5

• • Low cost, so it can be mounted cl ose to data sources such a s catt l e and cr ops.

• Easy to install networ ks and sensor s.

• Not dependent on tel co oper ator cell ular cover age.

• Abl e t o r un independentl y of el ectricit y, wit h batter y life of sever a l years

• Abl e t o transmit sensor data over long distances

LoRa WAN wor ks over 915-, 868-, and 433 MHz IMS bands a va il ab l e t hrou ghout t he wor l d. A n edge devi ce costs under $25 a nd ca n last up to 10 years on a singl e A A batter y, t r a nsmi tt in g over 12 mi les i n a clear a r ea.

C el lul a r te chnol ogi es, on the ot her hand, pr ovide ubiqu i tous communicat ion s wher e el ect r i ca l power a nd cel l ul a r cover age a r e a va il ab l e, wi t h emerging NB-IoT pr otocol s featu r i ng si mil a r batte ry life cha r a cter i sti cs as LoRaW A N a l beit sti l l dependent on cel l ul a r cover age

S E N S O R S & H A R D W A R E

Today, ther e ar e sensor s availabl e for any thing; some ar e a er ial , some satellite, and other s gr ound based Within the Smar t Far m ing and Pr ecision A gr icul tur al spa ce, sensor s ar e used to monitor the foll owing: li vestock , vehicl e tra ck ing, cr op/soil , soil moistur e, animal l ocation /a cti vit y, buil ding temper atur e, and humi dit y.

A n exampl e of sensor utilization in monitor ing plant and soil con ditions is a simpl e use case but it can l ea d to a fant astic r etur n on investment for far mer s Several ef fecti ve uses for agr icul tur e I oT in this spa ce incl ude:

• Sensing for soil moistur e and nutr ient s

• C ontr olling water usage for optimal plant gr owth

•

• Deter mining the optimal time to plant and har vest

• Repor ting weather conditions. 7

A nother exampl e is li vestock monitor ing, which helps identi f y sick animal s so they can be pull ed fr om the her d, pr eventing the spr ea d of disease This pr a ctice al so l ower s labor cost s beca use r ancher s can i denti f y wher e their cat tl e ar e l ocated

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