Smart farming : definition
Smart farming refers to the use of new technologies, particularly connected devices, to automate and improve the management of agricultural operations. With technology, decisions no longer solely rely on the farmer’s experience or observations; they are based on reliable, precise, real-time data.
Smart farming particularly leverages IoT (Internet of Things) through a network of physical objects such as sensors, cameras, drones, and autonomous vehicles. These objects can collect information, analyze it, and transmit it. In practice, smart farming can manifest as moisture sensors that automatically trigger irrigation when necessary, GPS beacons that track herd movements, or thermal sensors that detect signs of disease in fields.
Thus, smart farming is not just about improving the yield of an operation; it enables more sustainable and collaborative management.
Technology serving agriculture
Connected sensors play a central role in smart farming. Positioned within crops or directly integrated into agricultural equipment, they help manage several parameters: temperature, air or soil humidity levels, sunlight exposure, wind speed, water pH, and more. The precise aim is to gather all the information that will allow farmers to intervene in the face of risk or even anticipate it by making informed decisions based on the information at their disposal. In some cases, AI can also be a decision-support tool.
IoT also allows for the automation of certain tasks where human intervention does not add value, carried out with autonomous machinery and tools. This is a crucial advantage for delegating repetitive or tiring tasks: the farmer can thus focus on other tasks, gaining productivity and efficiency.
These devices go hand in hand with solid communication networks, such as multi-operator SIM cards or LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) networks, commonly used in IoT, enabling coverage of a wide range of objects with a scope of several kilometers. These communication networks ensure continuous coverage, including in the most remote rural areas. Collected information is then transmitted to platforms that centralize and analyze it. Farmers can subsequently consult these analyses directly via their smartphone or computer to receive alerts if immediate intervention is necessary. They can also automate actions, like triggering irrigation, for example.
Another frequently employed tool: agricultural drones, which can map the state and health of crops using multispectral cameras. They facilitate the identification of stressed zones, planning harvests, or assessing damage caused by bad weather. The latest tool revolutionizing agriculture: agricultural robots capable of weeding, planting, or harvesting without human intervention by setting their intervention perimeter. With two advantages: automating tedious tasks and compensating for labor shortages in certain regions.
More efficient, collaborative, and sustainable operations
Smart farming represents a real advance in terms of performance gains and sustainability. The innovations employed allow for optimized resource use and waste prevention. This is the case when sensors identify which areas need watering and when, avoiding automatic watering of entire crops. Fertilizers and pesticides are also used more precisely to reduce costs and environmental impacts.
In parallel, the precision of data transmitted by IoT improves crop yields and adapts actions according to early signs of water stress or disease.
Beyond the tools, smart agriculture paves the way for more collaborative farming. Data platforms allow data sharing among farmers in the same region or agricultural sector, sharing alerts or best practices, and creating a network of mutual support and sharing. This data mutualization ultimately improves the resilience of the sector in the face of increasingly frequent economic and climatic challenges.
In the long term, agriculture adopts a more global approach thanks to smart farming. By optimizing water and energy resources and improving farm yields, agriculture adapts to an increasingly large global population in the face of escalating climate change and dwindling resources.
Also read: IoT for environmental protection
Promising technologies, yet still minor
Though the advancements enabled by smart farming are real, this type of agriculture is far from being widely adopted. Several obstacles still prevent its large-scale deployment:
- Expensive equipment: for small farmers, investing in equipment like drones or sensors represents a significant expense. Even though the price of connected objects is becoming more accessible, they require an initial investment that can be prohibitive, coupled with the costs of subscriptions to data management platforms.
- Uninformed farmers: effectively using these new tools requires mastering digital tools, which not all farmers have. Solid support is essential for informing farmers about these new tools and training them in their use.
- Not always connected areas: without reliable network access, IoT cannot function sustainably. While the deployment of suitable infrastructure is underway, they are not yet efficient everywhere.
Objenious, your partner in implementing IoT projects
Are you developing solutions for Smart Farming? Objenious, Bouygues Telecom’s IoT brand, offers personalized support. Choose the IoT network that matches your business and geographic constraints. Need advice? Please feel free to contact us directly.