Agritech refers to a growing field of applying technology to improve agriculture; while Agri IoT relates to the specific application of IoT technologies to create smart farming. Sensors, cameras and drones are technologies being deployed to gather data on parameters such as crop health, irrigation needs and plant density, all in the name of improving farming.
Agriculture has never been an easy industry to work in but in recent decades, farmers are expressing concerns about how they’ll feasibly be able to continue producing food for the nation as climate change threatens the conditions crops need to grow. Unpredictable weather patterns are raising temperatures and increasing rainfall, both of which aren’t conducive to growing crops.
Industry body UK Flour Millers published a 2024 wheat market briefing that warned of a prolonged wet weather season and the impacts it was having on wheat planting and wheat crops, as 40% was rated as poor or very poor compared with 1% in 2023. “The poor outlook for the upcoming UK wheat harvest is going to pose a real challenge. For milling wheat this is exacerbated by the decline in popularity of high quality breadmaking wheat varieties, Group 1, which make up the backbone of UK flour milling demand,” said Joe Brennan, Head of Technical at UK Flour Millers.
IoT is all about enabling connectivity between devices so they can talk to one another. For consumer electronics like smartphones and laptops this is a given; in the world of farming adoption is gradual but growing, and the possibilities are vast.
Weather stations draw on data from sensors to map climate conditions which are becoming more integral in order to understand when to plant and harvest, while deploying the actual sensors to gather information such as soil moisture and the amount of fertiliser required helps with keeping costs down partly by reducing the amount of fertiliser wasted.
Eseye recently asserted that IoT technology is integral to supporting agriculture, from precision farming and crop monitoring to waste management and smart integration. In a blog post, it explained that the advent of equipment like mechanical plows and harvesters have taken the strain out of manual labour, but that human intervention is still a big part of farming – and IoT technologies work well alongside in relaying data and information.
“Farmers today face immense challenges, from disease management to sustainability and these issues are on the rise. To manage the future of our agriculture industry, farmers must embrace the technology available in order to survive,” said Nick Earle, CEO of Eseye. “Our work with Precision Animal Solutions is a prime example of how IoT technology is at the forefront of keeping our farming industry alive and exemplifies how this technology can provide practical, scalable solutions to these issues.
In preparation for the future and what farming might look like, Nottingham Trent University announced that it would be running a new masters degree in smart agriculture and future crops this September. The aim of the course is to introduce international students to future crop technologies and UK farming techniques, looking at topics from plant nutrition to the application of AI and IoT in automated control systems.
The university’s own work in training an AI system for fertilising different crops without fertiliser or energy waste reflects one area where AI can be a beneficial tool for saving farmers costs, as the war in Ukraine pushed up the price of fertiliser and energy.
“The advances we’ve made means this feels like the right time for a course in smart agriculture”, Prof Lu told BBC News. “This is the future of agriculture.”
In another sign of what might become more widespread in adoption, US-based flour company Shepherd’s Grain is harnessing an AI software system ClimateAi to tackle the unpredictability wrought by climate change, as reported by BBC News. The software can provide accurate and long-term weather forecasts, which are perhaps causing the greatest uncertainty, as well as advice on when to plant and harvest crops based on this information.
“A forward look at the weather helps our growers decide which crops to plant. The platform knows when to plant, and when the crop will start flowering and producing seed,” Jeremy Bunch of Shepherd’s Grain told BBC News.
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