Senwes Scenario Desember 2018 / Januarie 2019 | Page 8

Theme:
ch
Te nology
LANDBOUKUNDIG | AGRICULTURAL
Future Development in
Agriculture Technology
How does the Internet of Things (IoT) contribute to the use of smart agriculture and how
does it look in real life?
 By Petrus van Staden
Senwes Senior Agronomist and
Martin van Zyl
Senwes Group Executive: Innovation
and Integrated Solutions
T
he Internet of Things (IoT) is
growing at an astonishing rate
and devices have penetrated
nearly every aspect of life. It
ranges from health and fitness devices
that are in general use, to futuristic smart
cities where garbage removal is automa­
ted and sewage blockages are detected
by sensors and solved with software.
Smart agriculture IoT, as well as indus-
trial IoT in general, aren’t as popular as
consumer connected devices; yet the
market is still very dynamic. The aim is to
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improve nearly every facet of production
and management to eventually lead to
higher revenue. Self-driving tractor and
robotic implements are no longer a sci-fi
fantasy but an everyday occurrence.
The adoption of IoT solutions for agri-
culture is constantly growing. Business
Intelligence predicts that the number of
agriculture IoT device installations will hit
75 million by 2020, growing by 20% annu-
ally. At the same time, the global smart
agriculture market size is expected to
triple by 2025. MONITORING CLIMATE
Weather stations are probably the most
popular smart agriculture gadgets, com-
bining various smart farming sensors.
Whether open field or greenhouses, tech-
nology made it simple and affordable to
locate stations across fields, farms or each
greenhouse to collect data which can
be used to map the climate conditions,
choose the appropriate crops and take the
required measures to improve their capac-
ity (i.e. precision farming).
Smart agriculture is mostly used to
denote the application of IoT solutions
in agriculture. The same applies to the
smart farming definition. What does
the application look like in real life? CROP MANAGEMENT
Precision farming entails crop management
devices that should be placed in the field
to collect data specific to crop farming,
e.g. temperature, precipitation, leaf water
potential, nutrients status, soil moisture con-
SENWES SCENARIO | TEGNOLOGIE & INNOVASIE • TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION 2018