The Internet of Things combined with big data, provides farmers with a wealth of information that they can use to maximise productivity and maintain the quality of food in the supply chain.
We are now leaving in the most scary times where everything is completely going digital.
So what is the future of Agriculture in Zimbabwe and the rest of the world in these dynamic times?
We have already witnessed one of our local young technopreneurs, Clive Nyapokoto from the Harare Institute of Technology developing the Vermi Acquaponics smart agricultural system which has an already won an Energy Global in South Africa. His system continues to cause waves across the country with its superior solutions outplaying the traditional agricultural methods which are struggling to produce bumper harvest in these modern erratic weather conditions.
Internet of Things (IoT) is already a mainstream phenomenon, being driven by the promise of revenue growth across multiple sectors such as manufacturing, transportation, resource extraction, agriculture, and the military. The agriculture industry, in particular, primarily depends on engineering, technology as well as the biological and physical sciences.
In this digital era, the agriculture industry has been an enthusiastic adopter of IoT and the applications of IoT in this sector is proliferating at a lightning speed with big farmhouses having to rethink their methods to find the efficiencies and cost savings necessary to compete.
With the real-time data provided, it can be possible for farmers to work in the acres of land and still watch their assets across entities such as their field, machinery and finance, monitored without being physically present. IoT, combined with big data, further provides farmers with a wealth of information that they can use to optimise efficiency, maximise productivity, and maintain the quality of food in the supply chain – from field to fork.
Initiatives to modernise agriculture have already been undertaken by developing IoT systems that enhance livestock welfare, these systems use data collected from a variety of sensors to ensure all operations are being executed within a set parameter and alerting farmers of any issues. For instance, when using IoT to monitor the health of livestock remotely, the farmers can track the animals’ movement to establish grazing patterns and help increase yield.
The IoT solutions also address two crucial issues prevalent which is irrigation and productivity in the agriculture space. Every year we read stories from across the globe on various countries facing drought and discussions on how this can be tackled. With the advent of technology in agriculture, this problem can now be resolved with assets such as irrigation systems or farming vehicles. These vehicles and systems provide data gathered by IoT sensors giving the farmers a holistic view of performance and helps schedule servicing and prevent yield-sapping breakdowns.
In certain areas such as precision agriculture, real-time data about soil, weather, air quality and hydration levels can help farmers make better informed decisions about the planting and harvesting of crops thus increasing the overall yield of crops as well. The IoT solutions and sensors will aid in increasing crop productivity by way of managing and controlling the activities such as crop water management and observation service (SOS).