Increase in the population brings lots of challanges the major being food production.
Smart farming technologies
Typical agriculture value chain
Future farms
1. Innovations in Smart Agriculture: a Training
Program for digital skills & Entrepreneurship
George K Georgiou
9th November 2021
MAKERSPACE -
LARNACA
2. BRAINSTORMING→ Elevator pitch
WHERE: Select area in agriculture value chain that needs
improvement/solution to a problem
HOW : Select technology or technologies to be used
WHO: is going to be benefited?
Expected VALUE / impact (reduce cost, environment, resource
optimisation etc)
7. Automation and Robotic Labour
Farming is a labour-intensive task that requires lots of time and effort. Usually,
these tasks are repetitive and monotonous. Farmers can delegate these labour-
intensive tasks to robotics and automation-based solutions. Such solutions have
the capability to perform tasks that range from seeding and watering to
harvesting and sorting. Eventually, this technology integration would result in
higher productivity with minimal resource wastage.
Robotic Machinery also helps in supporting farm machinery. It is useful for
sowing, harvesting and other services and helps in avoiding human errors.
Farms can utilize robotic systems for pesticide spraying, harvesting, cultivating
and other such activities.
8. Seeding and Planting
With driverless tractors and new IoT enabled machines rising, tasks like seeding
and planting are becoming more flexible and effortless. Initially, it was a manual
process, requiring a significant amount of effort to be put in by farmers or
farmhands. But with the help of machine learning and IoT sensors/devices –
farmers can now resolve problems like sowing the seeds in-depth and spacing
it at an appropriate distance for better plant growth, etc.
Farmers can also combine mapping and sensor data detailing to analyze soil
texture, quality, density, moisture and nutrient levels to better conduct the
seeding process. It will maximize the growth of the seeding process and
increase the chances of the harvest of the crop overall.
9. Irrigation and Crop Management
Farmers can use irrigation for crops when farms have inadequate rainfall or for
maintaining landscapes. They can balance the right amount of water and
moisture content in the soil with the help of automatic irrigation. Enabling the
use of these methods with IoT devices and sensors could help in soil
sustainability as well.
Crop analysis and weed management are essential for crops. A great harvest
depends on a good yield of crops. Thereby, farmers must install devices that
don’t require any intervention to remove weeds as well as help in other tasks so
that the growth of the crops are unaffected. With the help of sensors and
machines, farmers can monitor and analyze field conditions without even going
to the field and make strategic decisions for the whole farm or a single plant.
10. Drones and Sensors
One among the most useful tasks that drones could handle in farming, is the remote monitoring
and analysis of fields. Drones can travel at a certain altitude and visually check the crop’s condition.
It helps in saving time and labour that would normally be involved in manual checking.
Also, drones monitoring the farms can collect data related to farms that help in the analysis of
crops and fields. One can also embed multiple sensors in the drones to collect the different
conditions of the farms. These will help in generating data and guiding maps that can help in
guiding agribots and other machines to ensure proper maintenance of the farms.
Also using data analytics and data management, farm owners can create reports with insights into
patterns on crop health, soil, climate, fields etc. Such data derived from different farms could go to
help scientists study and improve farming practices.
We have just touched the tip of the iceberg. The use of technologies could largely impact other
types of farming like animal husbandry(livestock farming), greenhouse setups, horticulture and
many more. It is only a matter of time before farmers across the country embrace modern
technology and increase their productivity and revenue for good.