Harnessing the Power of IoT on Your Farm: Use Cases, Best Practices, and the Future of Smart Agriculture
As global populations grow and demand for food rises, farmers need to produce higher yields with fewer resources. Thankfully, advancements in technology can help. The Internet of Things (IoT) presents immense opportunities to make farms more efficient, productive, and sustainable.
In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll explore:
- The definition and benefits of IoT in agriculture
- 5 key use cases with examples and data
- 5 best practices for successful implementation
- Predictions on the future of smart farming
Let‘s dive in and see how IoT-enabled agriculture can help you optimize operations, reduce costs, and maximize profits.
What is IoT in Agriculture?
IoT refers to the billions of internet-connected sensors, devices, and machines that collect and share data. In agriculture, IoT includes everything from in-field sensors monitoring soil conditions to tags tracking animal locations to tractors with built-in GPS.
By outfitting farms with this technology, agricultural businesses gain unprecedented visibility into their operations. IoT devices generate huge amounts of valuable data that can drive smarter decision making.
The Benefits of IoT in Agriculture
When properly implemented, IoT systems deliver the following advantages:
- Increased crop yields and animal health
- Reduced use of water, fertilizers, and pesticides
- Early detection of equipment issues to prevent downtime
- Fewer losses from disease or pests
- Complete traceability from farm to table
- Data-driven prediction of yields for improved planning
- Automation of manual tasks like irrigation
According to one estimate, IoT technologies can improve farm productivity by anywhere from 10% to 20%.
The global market for IoT in agriculture is growing rapidly as a result. In 2018 over 75 million devices were already deployed on farms. By 2023, that number could reach:
- 225 million devices
- $15 billion market value
Next, we‘ll showcase some of the most common and impactful IoT applications in agriculture today.
5 Key Use Cases of IoT in Agriculture
1. Precision Agriculture
Precision agriculture uses sensors, mapping, and data to optimize crop yields and resource usage. Rather than applying fertilizer and pesticides uniformly across entire fields, it allows targeted treatment of specific zones according to their needs.
For example, moisture sensors throughout a field connect to variable-rate irrigation systems. This enables applying more water to drier areas and less to properly hydrated zones.
Similarly, optical sensors detecting nitrogen levels in the leaves can change fertilizer application rates on-the-go. Sprayers receive guidance to increase dosing where nitrogen is deficient.
Other precision agriculture applications include:
- Monitoring microclimate conditions such as temperature and rainfall in different zones
- Creating elevation maps and crop yield projection models with arable mapping software
- Detecting early signs of crop stress and disease outbreaks through aerial drones and GPS-tagged scouting
By customizing treatments based on localized needs, farms prevent overwatering and runoff. Precision leads to healthier plants, higher yields, and fewer inputs required per acre.
Initial implementation costs can be high, but one study found that precision techniques can provide a return on investment in 2-3 years. Another reported:
- 10-15% increase in yields
- 15% reduction in water usage
- 20% reduction in fertilizer usage
- 10-25% savings on pesticides
2. Smart Greenhouses
IoT automation lets greenhouses continually adjust environmental conditions like light, humidity, and temperature to optimize growth. This leads to:
- 30% increase in crop yield
- 10-25% reduction in energy costs
- 75% reduction in water usage
Sensors throughout the greenhouse connect to a central dashboard or app. This allows monitoring conditions from anywhere and quickly adjusting actuators and equipment to maintain ideal growing parameters.
Analytics platforms can also ingest the data to model plant needs, detect inefficient equipment, and predict future yields under different scenarios. This enables growers to fine-tune conditions for maximum output and profitability.
For example, one tomato farm in Finland uses an intelligent IoT system to regulate irrigation, nutrition, and lighting. This has increased yields by 30% while creating perfect uniformity between plants.
3. Livestock Monitoring
IoT animal tracking leverages collars, ear tags, and other sensors to monitor:
- Location and movement patterns
- Vitals like body temperature and heart rate
- Behaviors like time spent grazing or resting
- Respiratory issues based on coughing or breathing sounds
The data indicates animals who may be sick, injured, or distressed before symptoms escalate. Instant alerts allow farmers to intervene early and prevent losses.
Location tracking of grazing animals also prevents wandering and theft. One research study found that this can reduce livestock losses by up to 67% annually.
Overall, IoT animal monitoring improves herd health outcomes, lowers medication costs, and minimizes expensive losses.
4. Predictive Maintenance
Unplanned equipment downtime can lead to significant disruptions and costs during critical farming seasons.
IoT sensors on tractors, implements, and other farm machinery track performance metrics like:
- Engine temperature
- Fuel consumption
- Vibration/noise
- Error codes
Analytics software analyzes this data to detect anomalies and predict potential failures before they occur. It also optimizes maintenance scheduling to prevent unnecessary work.
According to McKinsey, predictive maintenance with IoT can reduce equipment breakdowns by 30-50% while lowering maintenance costs by 8-12%.
5. Supply Chain Traceability
IoT enables tracking food products from farm to table, providing transparency and traceability.
For example, a vegetable grower may attach RFID tags with unique IDs to crates of picked produce. Sensors then track the create through packing, shipping, and delivery to stores while recording conditions like temperature.
If any food safety issues emerge, stores can quickly identify affected crates based on sensor data. This minimizes the scale of recalls. Shoppers also gain trust knowing an item‘s provenance.
According to a study by the Global Food Traceability Center, traceability can lead to:
- 11% increase in brand trust by consumers
- 10% reduction in recall costs
- Upto 80% reduction in legal liabilities during recalls
Next, we‘ll discuss key steps for getting the most from IoT deployments.
5 Best Practices for Implementing IoT
Follow these tips for successful IoT adoption:
1. Start Small, Prove Value
- Focus initial rollouts on 1-2 high-impact areas
- For example: livestock monitoring, irrigation automation, predictive maintenance
- Once you demonstrate ROI, it‘s easier to justify expanding to other applications
2. Ensure System Interoperability
- Choosing IoT platforms all using open APIs and standard data formats
- Prevents vendor lock-in and allows integrating new solutions over time
3. Perform Local Edge Analytics
- Running analytics on farm servers reduces cloud costs
- Enables real-time automated actions without internet latency
- Provides backup if connectivity is lost
4. Prioritize Security
- Encrypt data communications and harden device security
- Monitor for suspicious network activity indicating attacks
- Perform penetration testing to find and address vulnerabilities
5. Involve Staff & Provide Training
- Get team buy-in early through demos showing clear benefits
- Train workers on using and maintaining new technologies
- Document procedures for data monitoring and automated responses
This phased approach focused on flexibility, security, and collaboration sets you up for long-term success.
The Future of Farming with IoT
IoT adoption in agriculture is still early but growing rapidly as the benefits become clearer each season. Here are two future predictions as the industry shifts toward data-driven smart farming:
- Expansion of value-added services – Rather than just selling hardware, expect agtech companies to provide ongoing value like data analytics, 24/7 monitoring, maintenance, training services and more.
- Further automation and robotics – As sensor costs keep dropping, expect penetration to increase along with adoption of automated farm robots capable of pruning, harvesting, weed control, and other tasks.
The bottom line is that farms need to leverage technology to increase efficiency, yields, and sustainability as our world‘s food needs grow. IoT presents a huge opportunity to bring aging industry practices into the modern era.
The benefits for early adopters will be significant. But remember to start small and remain flexible. With the right strategy, IoT can help your farm gain a competitive advantage and remain productive well into the future.
