Smart Agricultural Technology

The World Population, as of now, is a staggering 8.5 billion. It is estimated that this number will rise to 9.7 billion by 2050 and expected to be more than 11 billion by 2100. A population of this magnitude brings a lot of challenges, food production chief among them. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization predicts that we need to boost worldwide food production by 70 percent over the next several decades in order to feed the anticipated population of 2050. A rapid escalation in food production to cater to the growing demand is not an easy task. Agriculture being the oldest industry had already undergone revolutionary changes in the past to come true to the world expectations and certainly it’s no stranger to technological advancements happening around in multidisciplinary areas. The industrial revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries replaced handheld tools and bull-drawn ploughs with gasoline engines; chemical fertilizers and further applications of tools and techniques as developed in related areas like microbiology, biochemistry for development of better seeds, crops and yield. The world is at present witnessing yet another big revolution, The Third Green Revolution. Following the plant breeding and genetics revolutions, this Third Green Revolution is taking over the agricultural world based upon the Integration and Convergence of Modern Technologies into agriculture such as Artificially Intelligent Internet of Things (AIoT), sensors and actuators, geo-positioning systems, precision equipment, Big Data, Blockchain Technology, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs, drones), robotics, driverless tractors, farm management software, e-grocer businesses etc., in order to deliver a sustainable agricultural system termed as SMART AGRICULTURE SYSTEM. Smart agriculture involves integration of the above mentioned advanced technologies into already persisting agricultural practices with a view to boost production quality and efficiency of agricultural products. As an added benefit, they also improve the quality of life for farm workers by reducing heavy labour and tedious tasks.  It helps in automated farming with the collection of data for further analysis to provide the operator with accurate information for better decision making to gain high quality output of the product. A technically advanced farming management system rooted on observing, measuring and responding to inter and intra-field variableness in products. The goal of smart agriculture research is to ground a decision making support system for farm management. A system that optimises and examines how high-tech farming can aid the production output as well as focuses on the preservation of resources. Smart agriculture deems it necessary to address the issues of population growth, climate change and labour that has gained a lot of technological attention, from planting and watering of crops to harvesting, selling and delivery. Unfortunately, due to excessive use of pesticides and chemicals, there has been continuous degradation of agriculture land and water (soil and water pollution). It is also causing public health problems. The problem of agriculture soil water pollution is to be seriously looked into. Smart Agriculture should provide solutions to this problem. Monitoring and management of soil water pollution is an aspect of smart agriculture system. Most of the currently employed and imminent agricultural technologies fall into three categories that are expected to become the pillars of the smart farm:

1. 1. 1. 1. Autonomous robots, drones or UAVs,
         2. Sensors and
         3. The Internet of Things (IoT).

1. Autonomous and Robotic Labour Replacing human labor with automation is a growing trend across multiple industries, and agriculture is no exception. Most aspects of farming are exceptionally labor-intensive, with much of that labor comprised of repetitive and standardized tasks—an ideal niche for robotics and automation. We’re already seeing agricultural robots—or AgBots—beginning to appear on farms and performing tasks ranging from planting and watering, to harvesting and sorting.  Eventually, this new wave of smart equipment will make it possible to produce more and higher quality food with less manpower. Driverless Tractors The tractor is the heart of a farm, used for many different tasks depending on the type of farm and the configuration of its ancillary equipment.  As autonomous driving technologies advance, tractors are expected to become some of the earliest machines to be converted. In the early stages, human effort will still be required to set up field and boundary maps, program the best field paths using path planning software, and decide other operating conditions.  Humans will also still be required for regular repair and maintenance. Nevertheless, autonomous tractors will become more capable and self-sufficient over time, especially with the inclusion of additional cameras and machine vision systems, GPS for navigation, IoT connectivity to enable remote monitoring and operation and radar and LiDAR for object detection and avoidance. All of these technological advancements will significantly diminish the need for humans to actively control these machines. 2. Agriculture Sensors: Sensors used in smart farming are known as agriculture sensors.

• • • • These sensors provide data which assist farmers to monitor and optimize crops by adapting to changes in the environmental conditions.
      • These sensors are installed on weather stations, drones and robots used in the agriculture industry.
      • They can be controlled using mobile apps specifically developed for the purpose.
      • Based on wireless connectivity either they can be controlled directly using wifi or through cellular towers with cellular frequencies with the help of mobile phone app.

Following table mentions list of agriculture Sensors used for different functions in agricultural industry.

Agriculture Sensors	Functional description
Location Sensors	These sensors determine latitude, longitude and altitude of any position within required area. They take help of GPS satellites for this purpose.
Optical Sensors	These sensors use light in order to measure properties of the soil. They are installed on satellites, drones or robots to determine clay, organic matter and moisture contents of the soil.
Electro-Chemical Sensors	These sensors help in gathering chemical data of the soils by detecting specific ions in the soil. They provide informations in the form of pH and soil nutrient levels.
Mechanical Sensors	These sensors are used to measure soil compaction or mechanical resistance.
Dielectric Soil Moisture Sensors	These sensors measure moisture levels by measuring dielectric constant of the soil.
Air Flow Sensors	These sensors are used to measure air permeability. They are used in fixed position or in mobile mode.

  Uses of Agriculture Sensors Following are the uses of Agriculture Sensors:

• • • • They are used in agricultural weather stations. These equipments are equipped with sensors which provide informations such as soil temperature at various depths, air temperature, rainfall, leaf wetness, chlorophyll, wind direction, solar radiation, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure etc.
      • They are used in many equipments (e.g. dendrometer) developed by agro based industries for agricultural or farming applications such as measuring trunk diameter, leaf wetness and so on.
      • They are used in agriculture drones for the purpose of spraying insecticides and pesticides.
      • Solar based pumps which are mobile operated have become very popular due to reduction in cost to electricity.
      • E-fences have become popular in rural INDIA which helps save crops from animals such as elephants.

Benefits or advantages of Agriculture Sensors

Following are the benefits or advantages of Agriculture Sensors:

• • • • They are invented to meet increasing demand of food by maximizing yields with minimum resources such as water, fertilizers and seeds. They fulfill this by conserving resources and mapping fields.
      • They are simple to use and easy to install.
      • They are cheaper.
      • In addition to agricultural use, they can also be used for pollution and global warming.
      • They are equipped with wireless chip so that they can be remotely controlled.

Drawbacks or disadvantages of Agriculture Sensors Following are the drawbacks or disadvantages of Agriculture Sensors:

• • • • Smart farming and IoT technology require continuous internet connectivity. This is not available in developing coutries such as INDIA and other part of the world.
      • There is presumption in the market that consumers are not always ready to adopt latest IoT devices equipped with agriculture sensors.
      • The basic infrastructure requirements such as smart grids, traffic systems and cellular towers are not available everywhere. This further hinders the growth of its use.

3. The Internet of Things (IoT) Autonomous as well as innovative use of sensors and drones pulled together is what forms the Internet of Things or IoT. The IoT is the network of carefully outfitted physical devices with electrical connectivity that enables data exchange and aggregation. The use of development management software, actuators and sensors enable a more immediate integration of the physical world into electronically-based systems, resulting in efficiency, economic benefits, and reduced human labour. Patterns and trends can be detected easily by the critically analysed data aggregated by the sensors which are embedded throughout each step of the farming process, and on every equipment. Sensors installed across the smart farm will collect data on soil as well as light conditions, irrigation, weather and air quality. The aggregated data will be communicated to the farmer, or directly to the agricultural robots in the field. Teams of critically administered AgBots will traverse across the fields and work autonomously in order to cater to the needs of the crops, and perform the required procedures of weeding, irrigation, pruning and harvesting. Farming has wide scope of applications when it comes to the IoT. The Imminent use of technology has positively managed to minimize the risk and waste experienced so far by the traditional farming methods. Farmers can now diagnose the areas detecting the fertility and conditions to carefully predict the possibility of the future yields. The Connected Farm: Sensors and the IoT Innovative, autonomous agbots and drones are useful, but what will really make the future farm a “smart farm” will be what brings all this tech together: the Internet of Things. The IoT has become a bit of a catch-all term for the idea of having computers, machines, equipment and devices of all types connected to each other, exchange data, and communicating in ways that enable them to operate as a so-called “smart” system.  We’re already seeing IoT technologies in use in many ways, such as smart home devices and digital assistants, smart factories and smart medical devices. Smart farms will have sensors embedded throughout every stage of the farming process, and on every piece of equipment.  Sensors set up across the fields will collect data on light levels, soil conditions, irrigation, air quality and weather. That data will go back to the farmer, or directly to AgBots in the field.  Teams of robots will traverse the fields and work autonomously to respond to the needs of crops, and perform weeding, watering, pruning and harvesting functions guided by their own collection of sensors, navigation and crop data.  Drones will tour the sky, getting the bird’s eye view of plant health and soil conditions, or generating maps that will guide the robots, and help the human farmers to plan for the farm’s next steps.  All of this will help create higher crop production, and an increased availability and quality of food. BENEFITS OF SMART FARMING SYSTEMS: Smart farming systems reduce waste, improve productivity and enable management of a greater number of resources through remote sensing. In traditional farming methods, it was a mainstay for the farmer to be out in the field, constantly monitoring the land and condition of crops. But with larger and larger farms, it has become more challenging for farmers to monitor everything everywhere. This is especially true with microfarming, where many remote plots of land may be farmed for different crops, requiring different conditions and precise control of soil and water. Today, the combination of smart irrigation and control being linked to local sensors, as well as sensing for pH and other environmental conditions, including insolation and local temperature, can stave off many issues that traditionally had been accounted for by “walking the field.” Remote monitoring through smart farming systems enables production yields to increase because farmers have more time to attend to their farm’s real issues: applying their expertise to solving problems with pests, watering in any location, amending soil conditions — all through the use of sensing and automation. The types of precision farming systems implemented depend on the use of software for management of the business. Control systems manage sensor input, delivering remote information for supply and decision support, as well as automation of machines and equipment for taking action in response to emerging issues and production support. This is not notably different than any other “smart” business model’s success criteria; a standardized approach sets forth the right use of resources for production in real time on the supply side and for meeting stringent constraints coming from the demand side. Thus, in a smart farming system, it’s about managing the supply of land and, based on its condition, setting it forth in the right growing parameters — for example, moisture, fertilizer or material content — to provide production for the right crop that is in demand. During production, it’s about managing one’s resources to improve the growing process. For example, precision farming systems concern precision seeding using automated tractors to reduce possible loss of seed and optimize spacing of plants to create the highest possible yield per acre. Another example is water, through the use of precision water delivery, such as trickle or subsurface methods, to reduce evaporation and to improve soil moisture content, delivering water only when it is needed through the use of sensors and automation. On the demand side, smart farming systems are about careful m anagement of the demand forecast and delivering goods to market just in time to reduce waste. Furthermore, it is about managing the delivery channel and ensuring that the transfer of product to the midmarket handler reduces waste through gentle and efficient handling, such as sufficient refrigeration. Overall, the entire process from farm to table is software-managed and sensor-monitored, reducing overall costs, improving overall yield and quality of the supply, and ultimately the experience for the consumer.