In this episode of IoT Unplugged, Alper Yegin, CEO of the LoRa Alliance, explains how long-range, low-power connectivity is helping farmers tackle rising costs, labour shortages and climate uncertainty, while making agriculture more productive and sustainable.
Yegin argues that agriculture is undergoing a digital transformation as pressure to increase food production coincides with advances in sensors, connectivity and artificial intelligence.
However, connecting farms presents a particular challenge. Agricultural sites often cover vast areas in remote locations, where cellular coverage is limited and technologies such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth cannot provide sufficient range.
This is where LoRaWAN can play a role. Designed for long-range communication with low power consumption, the technology allows farmers to connect sensors and equipment across large areas without relying on cellular networks.
“More than 90–95% of the applications in a farmland can be easily implemented using LoRaWAN,” Yegin said.
Battery-powered sensors can operate for several years, potentially more than a decade, while farmers can deploy their own networks using relatively inexpensive infrastructure.
The technology is particularly relevant to precision agriculture, where data from connected sensors can help farmers make more informed decisions about how they manage land and resources.
For example, soil moisture sensors, local weather stations and connected irrigation valves can work together to determine when and where crops need watering.
Rather than irrigating an entire field based on estimates, farmers can use real-time information to control water delivery across different sections of land, helping to avoid overwatering and reduce waste.
“Once that data is processed, turning that into precise control, like controlling valves, controlling gates, things like that,” Yegin said.
The same approach can be applied to livestock management. LoRaWAN-connected smart collars can track the location and health of cattle, while using sound and vibration to guide animals between grazing areas through virtual fencing.
These applications are helping farmers reduce their reliance on manual monitoring and labour-intensive processes.
Yegin points to existing smart agriculture deployments that have achieved savings of 10–30% in areas such as water consumption and labour, alongside improvements in agricultural yield and productivity.
He estimates that some farmers could achieve a return on investment within 12 to 18 months, depending on the application and deployment.
Looking further ahead, satellite connectivity could extend LoRaWAN coverage into some of the most remote agricultural locations. Yegin also highlights solar-powered base stations, low-cost infrastructure deployed on drones, and the development of agricultural robots as important areas of innovation.
Robots will require broadband connectivity for many of their operations, meaning LoRaWAN is unlikely to provide their primary connection. Instead, it can support remote management while connecting the wider network of sensors, weather stations and actuators that help automate the farm.
Yegin expects some farms to adopt more advanced automation within the next three to four years, with wider adoption potentially following within seven or eight years.
However, he does not envisage farms becoming entirely autonomous. Instead, connected devices and intelligent systems will increasingly take on monitoring, decision-making and physical tasks, allowing farmers to focus their attention where it is most needed.
To hear more about how IoT is transforming agriculture, listen to the latest episode of IoT Unplugged on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and at the link below.
https://iot-unplugged.simplecast.com/episodes/84-how-iot-is-driving-autonomous-farming
