Smart Farming Techniques In 2020 | IoT Based Smart Agriculture
The year 2020, has hit us very hard. Almost every business sector is getting hampered due to major unexpected breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic. While people are still solving and identifying the way out, only industry which is not hit and still remains to be the most important industry across each country in the world is Agriculture. But, this pandemic has also highlighted some glitches in Agro-Industry, such as its discontinuity when it comes to supply chain management.
So, it should be priority of all Agro Visionaries to spot loopholes in the system and work out Smart Farming solutions. It has been seen that smart agriculture technology, internet and agriculture, when combined together, can actually do miracles. So, it has become global need to promote use of smart farming techniques.
We searched through different tech-trends in agriculture and found that following Smart Farming techniques can be useful to drive Agro-Growth:
IoT based smart agriculture: A New Dawn
Agriculture is all about years of research, experience and efforts. There are numerous factors to be considered, such as quality of soil, changing weather conditions, type of crops, fertilizers and growth boosters used accordingly. And this can only be gathered with years of experience. So, if you see in broader aspect, agriculture is all about gathering data, processing it and using its outputs for further improvement.
IoT based smart agriculture can play a crucial role when it comes to data. Right from variations in soil quality to predicting weather conditions ahead of the time, it can be Agro-Savior. If we are thinking to introduce automation and robotics in Agro-Industry then implementing IoT is the first initial step towards it.
Automation and Robotics:
Human Labor has become a big issue this time, with rise of COVID-19 pandemic. Even e-retail stores or e-commerce stores are implementing their No-Contact Delivery programs. So, to avoid direct human interaction in agro- process, people are starting to automate and robotize the work that was done by human labors. We have seen how AgBots (Agriculture Robots) playing a game-changing role in concept of smart farming. We are sure; these changed conditions will create a whole new wave of smart equipment.
Drone Technology:
With rise in the need of contactless operations, Drones and Drone based equipment will be very useful and productive in Agriculture sector. With mile long farms, we have seen choppers doing some works like irrigation or fertilization, but Drones are real game changers.
There are three major areas where Drones can work, which are Planting, Irrigation and Analytics. Usage of drones is proved to be highly cost effective, as it save nearly 85% of the cost. It can scan soil, plants or even leaves of the plants and take required action accordingly. Hence, water usage, spraying usage and time can be minimized with the use of drones.
End To End Supply Chain Management:
SCM (Supply Chain Management) has changed drastically over last few years. If we think of agriculture systems, it can change entire process of action when implemented correctly. Right from, choosing best of the seeds to reaching the products to preferred market place, SCM can be a truly reliever and rescuer from man-made hindrances.
If farmers are equipped with necessary mobility and infrastructure, SCM is easy to implement. Smart Marketplaces is new innovation in Smart Farming saga. It enables you to supply your products to only those marketplaces where they are highly required. This technique increases efficiency and lowers time consumption and other losses.
We think it is transitional time for agriculture industry. It’s time to upgrade and enhance. And only correct way to progress is enabling Smart Farming techniques in actual day-to-day farming processes.
