Smart farming: Benefiting harvests and sustainability

Accurate monitoring of environmental data, such as temperature, air humidity and light. Efficient use of resources like water or fertilisers. Fewer pesticides. Automation of plant breeding, sowing, harvesting, and animal husbandry. The technology-driven approaches to smart farming promise increased harvests, ecologically sustainable processes, and improved cost effectiveness for farms.

The spotlight is on a more comprehensive perspective, climate changes, and a rapidly growing global population that needs to be fed over the long term. IoT technologies are playing a central role in this. The spectrum of these technologies extends from data collection using sensors – for instance, for monitoring the status of agricultural machinery, measuring nitrates in the soil, monitoring ammonia in animal stalls, and providing aerial images using drones – to big data analyses and artificial intelligence.

Measured data, coming from sensors and cameras, for example, form the basis of smart farming. To realise its potential, data communication needs to be connected over powerful and rugged networks, to link sensors, control systems, embedded computers, image processing systems and drives, and, if need be, to supply electrical power. 

Read the full article in DPA's October issue