Smart farming, also known as smart agriculture, is the adoption of advanced technologies and data-driven farm operations to optimize and improve sustainability in agricultural production. Technologies used for smart farming include artifical intelligence (AI), automation and the Internet of Things (IoT).
speeding up data collection and processing
increasing accuracy and precision level
enhancing production efficiency
reducing production costs
lowering the need for manual labor
minimizing driver stress
simplifying risk forecasting
streamlining task recording and reporting
boosting sustainability
Smart farming and IoT-driven agriculture are paving the way for what can be called a Third Green Revolution.
Following the plant breeding and genetics revolutions, the Third Green Revolution is taking over agriculture. That revolution draws upon the combined application of data-driven analytics technologies, such as precision farming equipment, IoT, big data analytics, robotics, etc.
In the future, this smart farming revolution depicts, pesticide and fertilizer use will drop while overall efficiency will rise. IoT technologies will enable better food traceability, which in turn will lead to increased food safety. It will also be beneficial for the environment, through, for example, more efficient use of water, or optimization of treatments and inputs.
Therefore, smart farming has a real potential to deliver a more productive and sustainable form of agricultural production, based on a more precise and resource-efficient approach. New farms will finally realize the eternal dream of mankind. It’ll feed our population, which may explode to 9.8 billion by 2050.