Farmers can now get real time data to help them understand the important factors that affect their crop’s performance. From planting to harvesting, digital technologies are helping farmers to get the most out of their crops.
From outside farming looks like a primitive occupation. Dwight D Eisenhower rightly said that farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field. But standing at the corner of the field, staring at the crops only to realise that the harvest has failed, pricks the heart of a farmer. Farming is a specialized activity. Only a farmer knows the uniqueness of his field and has the required knowledge and experience to increase the potential of his plot with the minimum of resources.
However, with the world moving rapidly towards advancements leading to disturbances in the natural process of the fields makes it onerous for the farmer to foresee the patterns of their field. And yet for all their expertise, farmers are under constant pressure to improve their harvest each year. The unpredictable weather conditions, climatic changes and the increasing population adds up to the stress that farmers bear. It is the responsibility of a farmers to produce crops that will feed the future. And to do so in a sustainable way that doesn’t require using more land and greater resources.
Being a 21st century problem, this has a 21st century solution; Go Digital!
Crowned as the center of this new age is the increasing role of big data in agriculture. Framers can now get real time data to help them understand the important factors that affect their crop’s performance. From planting to harvesting, digital technologies are helping farmers to get the most out of their crops.
“Now, farmers are employing high-tech farming techniques and technologies, such as sensors, IoT-based software applications, communications systems and data analytics, to improve the efficiency of their day-to-day work. Our company has launched state-of-the-art digital solutions, using a combination of satellite images, soil data, weather data, and clever algorithms so that farmers can maximize the yield of their crops, using as few resources as possible,” said James Swanson, CIO and Head of Digital Transformation for the Crop Science division of Bayer in an interview with ETCIO.
Edited Excerpts:
How is data driving the future of farming?
To meet the demand of sustainably producing enough food to feed the growing population, farmers and agricultural companies are turning to data more than ever before. Today, digital technologies, new sources of data, and advances in machine learning are changing farming’s data reality. Farmers have access to real-time reports about their operations on a tablet or smartphone, and complex algorithms are helping farmers make sense of vast amounts of data, soil, water, humidity, weather, topography all related to their operations. Simply stated, the future of farming is in collecting and analyzing data to maximize resource efficiency through informed decisions.
How has IoT been infused in agricultural industry?
IoT is primed to push the agricultural industry to the next level. Smart and high-tech agriculture is becoming commonplace, thanks to technologies like smart sensors and machine learning. Farmers are using sensors in their fields to monitor soil, water, light, humidity and temperatures, acre by acre. They have access to the detailed topography of their land. And, by accessing climate forecasts, they are better predicting weather patterns to make decisions based on data. For our internal operations, the sensors we place on trucks allow us in real time to track and plan the movement of seeds in more than 600,000 shipments per year. We automate load optimization, routing and scheduling, resulting in fewer trucks on the road driving the fewest miles possible. This not only reduces seed loss and ensures timely seed delivery to farmers, but it has also helped reduce our carbon footprint.
How far has IoT and automation liberated the farmers on fields?
Farmers have always collected and evaluated a large amount of data with each growing season – seeds planted, inputs applied, crops harvested, etc., but, historically, they lacked tools that enabled them to make data-driven decisions when deciding how much water, seed, and crop protection to apply to their fields. Now, they’re employing high-tech farming techniques and technologies, such as sensors, IoT-based software applications, communications systems and data analytics, to improve the efficiency of their day-to-day work. Our company has launched state-of-the-art digital solutions, using a combination of satellite images, soil data, weather data, and clever algorithms so that farmers can maximize the yield of their crop, using as few resources as possible. New digital tools offer farmers customized insights with a few taps on the screen, changing the way they spend their day and the quality of information they have to make daily decisions. We are enabling farmers all over the world (large and smallholders), combining science, digital, and decision science to improve outcomes, optimize inputs, and do so more sustainably.
What will be the future trends of smart farming?
Wide-scale access to smartphones and IoT systems has led to the rapid adoption of smart farming solutions. IoT-based smart farming will be accessible to farming operations, large and small. Unmanned aerial vehicles and drones will continue to be incorporated into farming operations to reduce the need for manual labor, to assess crop health, and to monitor crops to determine precise planting and spraying. Farmers will be able to monitor field conditions without going to the field and will be able to make strategic decisions for the whole farm or for a single plant. The driving force of smart farming will continue to be IoT —connecting smart machines and sensors, integrated on farms to make farming practices data-driven and data-enabled.
