Technological advancements are happening at a very rapid pace in this day and age. With the digitalization of industries, their scope broadens, and output increases. This increase in ROI has led many industries to go digital, the agricultural industry being one of them. Integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) is a cost-effective way to implement digitalization.
Lack of access to real-time field data is a major contributor to agricultural losses. When armed with insights into soil moisture content, pH levels, temperature, humidity, etc. farmers can make data-backed decisions, without relying on guesswork and prior experiences. IoT-integrated smart agricultural solutions help in making such data accessible to farmers.
Why Smart Agriculture?
Smart Agriculture is the practice of combining technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) with traditional agricultural practices to enhance yield and optimize resource allocation. This in turn helps in making farming cost-efficient. Smart Agriculture is adaptable to many farming sectors like poultry, pisciculture, hydroponics, aquaponics, etc., and to farms and fields of any shape and size. This adaptability is one of the biggest advantages of smart agriculture. From tracking livestock to monitoring and controlling the micro-climate of greenhouses, IoT integration can help farmers in a number of ways.
Further advancements in the field of Agri-Tech have led to the wide adoption of precision farming practices by farmers. Precision agriculture is a type of farming that uses information technology to ensure that plants and the soil that they root from receive exactly what they need for optimum growth and productivity. It makes use of drones and satellites to increase yield and accessibility. Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). They fly at a lower height so that inhibitions like cloud cover and variation in light conditions are not as prevalent. Drones can be used in so many aspects of agriculture like irrigation, spraying, crop health surveillance, planting and seeding etc. Using drones, remote data collection is possible. Plant health could be monitored using remote sensing measures like Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). NDVI uses coloration to detect the health levels of the crop. Presently researchers are developing methods to utilise drones for pollination.
Why choose Intellifarm?
With traditional farming methods, decisions are based on the prior experience and expertise of the farmer. With Intellifarm, decisions are data backed. Parameters related to soil (like soil temperature, moisture, pH, salinity, conductivity, etc.), plant (leaf moisture, sap flow, disease conditions, etc.), and environment (humidity, light, precipitation, temperature, etc.) are continuously monitored and data stored. This helps in optimizing the use of agricultural inputs like fertilizers, pesticides, etc. Preventing the overuse of water and irrigation systems can also help in saving electricity and can save groundwater reservoirs from depletion.
For the average farmer, visualization of data is quite important. With Intellifarm, collected data is used to set threshold limits which are displayed in Green, Yellow and Red colors on the dashboard. Within safe ranges, the dial will have its pointer within the Green zone. And if the value lies outside of the threshold values, the pointer falls within the Red zone and an alert is sent out to notify the farmer along with a recommendation for counteracting this.
Here’s how implementing Intellifarm helped a prominent Mulberry farm improve yield and curb their water and pesticide usage. Before Intellifarm, they relied on visual inspection to determine the frequency of irrigation, and every such irrigation cycle on average consumed up to 15000 litres. By following the alert-based approach rather than a periodic irrigation cycle they were able to save approximately 20000 litres of water per month.
So how does Intellifarm work?
Intellifarm requires less than 24 hours for set up and to be fully functional. Sensors are used to monitor and capture data on air, soil, environmental, and plant conditions. To measure the air parameter, the Intellifarm device is connected to sensors that collect data on temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide levels, and light. And to measure the soil parameter, the device is buried 1 foot beneath the soil surface to measure parameters like soil temperature, soil electrical conductivity, and soil water content. The data is collected and displayed on the dashboard, based on which necessary actions can be taken. In addition to monitoring, capturing, and storage of data, actionable alerts and recommendations are sent via SMS and e-mail. By eliminating guesswork and empowering farmers with data, Intellifarm helps in
- Improving Yield
- Reducing Water consumption
- Reducing Pesticide and Fertilizer usage
- Farm-level weather forecast
- Customizable Solution
Write to us at info@datakrew.com to know more about Intellifarm.
