How crop sensors are making farming smarter
The global population is likely to increase by 2.2 billion over the next 30 years to reach 9.8 billion, there will be a lot more mouths to feed. At the same time, farmers face growing this extra food using less water, land, fertilizer and pesticides. Agriculture alone is responsible for slightly more than 10% of greenhouse gas emissions and 44% of water use in Europe while pesticide use has a major impact on pollinators and the wider ecosystem.
To meet this challenge, farmers across Europe have been teaming up with researchers and engineers to develop new technologies they hope will usher in an era of “precision farming”. With networks of sensors installed in fields or attached to animals, they can gather real-time data about the health of their crops and herds, allowing them to make better decisions about how to manage them.
Sensors, farm machinery and automated equipment are linked together to form an agricultural “internet of things”. Installing wireless sensors among crops and attaching “smart” ear tags to livestock could help farmers produce more food with less impact on the environment.
The technology of Internet of Things(IoTs) has been applied to various fields, making agricultural production be more intelligent. Yiyang Fang published a research on the application of Wireless Sensor Technology in agriculture at the journal of Electronics Science Technology and Application.
This paper analyzed the application of IoTs in farmland cultivation, aquaculture, and agricultural product logistics. It also discussed the upcoming challenges and solutions during the development of the IoTs in agriculture.
In short, the author thought the popularization of IoTs wireless sensing technology in agriculture could effectively improve the agricultural ecological environment, improve the efficiency of agricultural production and operation, release the escalating shortage of agricultural labor force, and change the concept of agricultural producers, consumers and organizational structure.
Read the full paper at : http://esta.usp-pl.com/index.php/esta/article/view/120