In the agricultural domain, the advent of IoT has paved the path for innovative research. Being promising yet at a budding stage, IoT must be extensively experimented upon to be applied widely in different agricultural applications. The rising demand for food has enhanced the necessity of industrialized progression and thorough production techniques in agricultural science. At the vanguard of the innovative farming age, an evolving internet of things (IoT) puts forward many innovative solutions. The agricultural parameters, such as environmental factors, soil conditions, etc., are traced in smart or precision agriculture to upsurge crop harvests, reduce costs, and sustain inputs for the process. Flourishing IoT technologies present several novel solutions and enhance growth prospects in the agricultural sector. To address the IoT's potential usage in the current scenario, this chapter looks at design principles, architectures, numerous challenges, and developments associated with smart agriculture. Also, a review of different perspectives on applications of IoT is conducted.
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The growing need for food and its enhanced quality and quantities has enhanced the requirement for industrial development and exhaustive agricultural production techniques. In this respect, the Internet of Things (IoT) (Gubbi et al., 2013; Ray, 2014), wireless ad-hoc and sensor networks (Ousmane et al., 2013), Radio Frequency Identifier (Pereira et al., 2011), cloud computing (Ojha et al., 2015), etc. technologies are becoming progressively more prevalent. At the spearhead of the novel agricultural epoch, there are evolving Internet of Things (IoT) practices that are suggestive of several innovative solutions.
Agriculture has been reformed by the diverse set of tools that IoT offers to cater to the challenges which farmers face in the field. Sensors are used to control various processes in farming. Farmers can also exploit IoT to keep up with the up-to-date situations of their farming land by a smartphone from everywhere in the world. Moreover, IoT-assisted technologies are significant in optimizing crop production costs and increasing land productivity. Hence, this chapter discusses at length some of the important roles of IoT in smart agriculture as water management, soil management, irrigation management, nutrient management, precision farming, etc.
Additionally, in various countries and organizations around the world, many IoT policies are implemented in farming. Though notable research has been conducted in the field of IoT there is still an excessive requirement for advanced research on the subject in the agricultural domain. When we consider the use of IoT in smart agriculture it is only the surface that the present computer applications are scratching. The complete strength of IoT to enhance agriculture is yet to be realized. Looking at the potential that IoT offers it is going to play a key role in various sectors of agriculture. It is due to the abilities of IoT as area-specific and remote data collection, analysis of intelligent information for cloud-based applications, and elementary communication framework (employing sensors, mobile devices, etc.) and facilitation in decision making. Such facilities can transform the agricultural industry which perhaps is one of the most significant spheres of our economic value chain at present.
The IoT technology became prominent in the year 2000 when Auto-ID was developed at MIT and was introduced in the consequent marketplace research reports. IoT is broadly perceived as the leading-edge technology with extensive relevance through nearly all facets of the marketplace, including the facility to escalate the incorporation of end products, methods, and services. IoT technologies are best for several systems and services, comprising healthcare services, transportation management, agricultural methods, and protection services.
ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) is present in traditional agricultural practices that support triggering the fourth farming revolution. The key technologies such as machine learning, Big Data Analytics, Remote Sensing, etc. have the competence to enhance farming practices to novel peaks. A wide range of agricultural factors, such as environmental parameters, soil state, irrigation water, herbicides, pesticides, and weed control, may perhaps be traced in smart agriculture to enhance yield, reduce costs, and retain process records. Smart agriculture along with reduced fertilizer utilization and pesticides in crops facilitates mitigating leaching problems, pollution, and climate variation effect, in smart agriculture (Walter et al., 2017).
There are various ongoing advances in research on IoT agriculture that consist of network engineering and applications, device design, and security challenges. In addition, in several countries and institutes worldwide, different IoT procedures and policies have been implemented in agriculture. Though notable research has been carried out in the field of IoT, there is a requirement for comprehensive further research on the topic in the domain of agriculture. This enhanced need for IoT for smart agriculture is the motivation behind this chapter.