Solving the smart agriculture conundrum: Why the smallest components have the biggest impact on smart farming initiatives

Andy Bird, Managing Director at GTT Wireless

Agriculture is under the spotlight as we move into 2020, and farmers, infrastructure providers and agricultural organisations find themselves at the end of a steady stream of pressure.

Firstly, there is intense consumer demand for environmentally friendly and sustainable produce, a demand that has a ripple effect throughout the food supply chain. Next, retailers are becoming more demanding about the items they sell on their shelves, particularly about where they’re sourced from, how they’re produced and who touched them along the way. Combine this with 24-hour shopping and rising population figures and more food produce is required than ever before.

The World Resources Institute outlines three gaps which must be shrunk before 2050 to sustainably feed the 10 billion people expected to inhabit the planet:

1. A 56 percent food gap between crop calories produced in 2010 and those needed in 2050

2. A 593 million-hectare land gap (an area nearly twice the size of India) between global agricultural land area in 2010 and expected agricultural expansion by 2050

3. An 11-gigaton GHG mitigation gap between expected agricultural emissions in 2050 and the target level needed to hold global warming below 2oC (3.6°F), the level necessary for preventing the worst climate impacts

Smarter farming methods come to the fore – it’s agriculture 4.0

It’s clear traditional farming methods and approaches must be radically overhauled to increase yield quantities, minimise wastage and meet sustainability goals. This can partially be addressed by education programmes such as the World Bank Climate Change Action Plan, which works with countries to deliver climate-smart agriculture that achieves the triple win of increased productivity, enhanced resilience and reduced emissions.

But quicker action can be provided by technology implementations. Enter what is becoming known as Agriculture 4.0, Digital Farming or Smart Agriculture. Technology leader IBM estimates that the average farm generates an estimated 500,000 data points per day, which will grow to 4 million data points by 2036.

By harnessing this data through connected devices and the Internet of Things (IoT), farmers can begin to analyse and unearth insights to inform farm operations, bringing huge efficiency and productivity benefits.

Connected machines already at work across the farm

The proliferation of connected devices on farms across the globe is not a future consideration, it’s already happening.

Smartphones have made their way onto crop fields and industrial greenhouses in recent years. Farmers can easily carry a smartphone to record field data and manage resources across an entire farm, straight from their fingertips. In fact, smartphone-based sensors such as microphones, cameras, GPS, accelerometers and several other apps have come to the fore for a multitude of farm management tasks.

Agricultural drones are also becoming an increasingly common sight in crop fields. Drones are a convenient and cost-efficient alternative to expensive, inaccurate and slow to source satellite imagery. This reconnaissance can be used to produce precise 3D maps for soil analysis—hyperspectral, multispectral or thermal sensors can even detect areas of a field which require irrigation improvements. Some drones are already physically being put to work on the farm, for example the DJI Agras MG-1 is an octocopter designed for precision variable rate application of liquid pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides. Able to carry a 10kg liquid payload, 4,000-6,000 m² of crop can be covered in just 10 minutes.

Even more traditional farm equipment is getting a technological overhaul. Tractor company John Deere has introduced IoT onto its tractors in the last five years. Its heavy machinery now comes equipped with 4G LTE modems, complete with WiFi and Bluetooth to ensure two-way communication to collect data from the farm and store it in the cloud.

Mission critical agricultural technology operates in a rugged environment

But the key underlying theme behind smart farm operations is connectivity. Remember those 500,000+ data points? They cannot be accurately recorded and actioned upon without reliable 24×7 connected networks.

This is where supporting hardware is stretched to breaking point. Usual indoor connectivity hardware such as 4G and WiFi antennas are no match for some of the harsh environments experienced on the frontline of agricultural operations. Think of the stresses on water sensors deployed in some of the hottest and dustiest areas of California, any error in a farm-wide irrigation system could be catastrophic to a grape or almond yield.

Connectivity is the only constant

That’s why infrastructure providers and farmers alike must tread carefully when specifying the hardware for any smart farming operation. We could easily be talking upwards of thousands of connectivity points for large deployments, so choosing a substandard off-the- shelf antenna, for example, could be a costly mistake in terms of development money and agricultural yield. The same thinking applies to the enclosures used to house critical connectivity hardware.

Antenna and enclosures used to provide and house critical connectivity systems must be designed with rugged outdoor applications as a minimum. This includes IP67 rating as standard, comprehensive UV resistance, weatherproof plugs, military-grade coating and much more. Only then can smart farmers be sure their hardware installation does not introduce vulnerability, even in the harshest conditions.

Small components, huge impact

With limited space, a growing population and increasing sustainability concerns it’s clear the next thirty years will take farming into a whole new territory. But addressing these big issues starts with the small details, smart farming has to be underpinned with robust connectivity, only then will the world reap the benefits.

Get in touch with the team today to find out how GTT Wireless solutions can help support your smart farming connectivity programmes.