Modern technology and the Internet of Things have impacted different sectors of the economy. From manufacturing to automotive to healthcare, IoT adoption has made a significant mark in their gradual development. The agriculture industry is no exception and is growing by leaps and bounds. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, by 2050, the world will need to produce 70% more food than it did in 2006 to feed the world’s growing population. As production demands continue to grow, agribusinesses are turning to IoT for greater agricultural productivity and sustainability. In this article, we’ll explore the top smart agriculture applications leveraging LoRa technology.
A general overview of LoRa-based smart agriculture
In simple terms, smart agriculture is the use of diversified modern information technology to realize the supervision, management and control of many elements in agricultural production. Through these smart technologies, environmental factors such as humidity and temperature can be acquired and perceived in time. Massive agricultural information will be integrated and processed through wireless network and Internet transmission, and finally serve the agricultural production process monitoring, scientific decision-making and real-time service of intelligent operation terminals.
LoRa smart agriculture is one of the specific applications of IoT in agricultural production, operation, management and services. By integrating LoRa technology into traditional farming, IoT is changing the future of global agriculture. The connected agriculture formed by LoRa and LoRaWAN will automatically adjust and intervene in the production process, thereby improving the quality of agricultural products and enhancing the efficiency and competitiveness of agricultural production.
What are the applications of LoRa in smart agriculture
As LoRa wireless technology continues to evolve, you will find more applications of LoRa and LoRaWAN in agricultural production. Currently, the remote monitoring system and wireless sensor monitoring supporting LoRa have been gradually improved and applied to smart agriculture, mainly including environmental monitoring, animal and plant information detection, greenhouse information monitoring, water-saving irrigation, etc. Here’s a look at the top 9 LoRa-enabled smart agriculture applications.
Livestock tracking
Monitoring and tracking a herd of cattle or sheep is a time-consuming and daunting task. Livestock farms can lose billions of dollars each year due to cow loss and infection of disease. Ranchers are searching for ways to enhance management and streamline operations while continuing to focus on their financial growth. LoRaWAN GPS tracker is of great help in tracking the location of animals in the vast pasture. Instead of keeping a close eye on the location of the cattle and sheep around the clock, farms can monitor their livestock in real time through their mobile phones at home.
In addition, a tag integrated with LoRa technology can be used to measure the cow’s body temperature, head movement, and overall movement. All the data is collected and processed into an application server, and farmers will be notified instantly if there are any potential health problems and abnormal stillness.
Smart greenhouse
The use of advanced technology in agriculture production can effectively improve the actual yield, especially for crops grown in greenhouses, which has a very significant effect. LoRa long-range wireless connectivity is an ideal choice for smart greenhouse. Especially for large-scale greenhouse cultivation, manual management is labor-intensive and time-consuming, and there are unavoidable human errors. By using a series of LoRa sensors to collect real-time environment data such as air temperature and humidity, soil moisture, carbon dioxide, light exposure and so on in the greenhouse, remote automatic control of the greenhouse can be realized.
Precision farming
Precision agriculture is a catch-all notion for IoT-based solutions designed to make farming more accurate and controlled. In short, crops and animals get the precise treatment they need, and with great accuracy. The biggest difference from traditional agriculture is that precision agriculture supports decision-making based on per square meter or even per plant/animal instead of one field. By adopting LoRa-enabled sensors to precisely measure variations within a field, farmers are allowed to adjust their inputs to crops according to their growing conditions, thereby improving the effectiveness of pesticides and fertilizers and maximizing agricultural production.
Soil moisture monitoring
Today’s farmers are desperate for data that will allow them to make accurate decisions about irrigation and fertilization to optimize the yield of their crops. When everything else remains the same, soil moisture is the primary factor that can boost crop yields. Once a farmer can control the soil moisture, he can maximize the crop yields despite weather and crop constraints. The low-power LoRa module supports the collection of soil information such as moisture and pH, and transmits all data to the LoRa gateway. The gateway then sends it to a remote or local server to create the optimal environment for crop growth.
Farm asset management
Modern agriculture usually involves machines for sowing, fertilizing, harvesting, transporting, etc. In traditional agriculture, these activities are often laborious and difficult to complete in the optimal time with a fast speed. The long-range LoRa technology brings a great deal of innovation for tracking and controlling these smart equipment. Whether it is managing crops, transporting products, or maintaining storage conditions, LoRaWAN technology make great contributions to the smart agriculture applications ecosystem.
Temperature & humidity monitoring
Traditional temperature and humidity monitoring are time-consuming, costly and difficult to implement due to a large number of cable laying, cable exposure and long communication lines. In comparison with wireless technologies, the traditional one cannot meet the diverse needs of ambient temperature and humidity monitoring. LoRa, on the other hand, achieves a compromise between low power consumption and long distance. It takes obvious advantages in temperature and humidity monitoring, which avoids wiring, saves manpower and material resources, and is perfect for environment temperature and humidity monitoring.
Smart irrigation
The growth of crops is extremely dependent on water irrigation, and either too much or too little will affect their growth. Moreover, over-irrigation will cause great waste of water resources. The LoRa-based smart irrigation system plays an important role in the scientific and effective management of agricultural water use. By installing a LoRaWAN-based controller on the water valve, the system will turn on the water value when the sensor detects insufficient soil moisture, and vice versa. Smart irrigation can effectively control the waste of resources and significantly improve the efficiency of crop irrigation.
Smart aquaculture
Water level, temperature, and quality are crucial for aquaculture. LoRaWAN-based sensors gather data such as water level, temperature, conductivity, PH, and dissolved oxygen. If there is any abnormality in the water level or temperature, it can be linked with the LoRaWAN water valve controller or water temperature device to ensure sufficient water quantity and proper water temperature. Of course, if there is something wrong with the water quality, the farmers will be notified immediately and prompt action can be taken to ensure the quality and yield of aquatic products.
Monitoring of climate conditions
Climate conditions monitoring is one of the smart agriculture applications that cannot be ignored. Climate conditions often have a great impact on agricultural production. Whether it is sowing, fertilizing, cultivating, harvesting, etc., it all depends on the weather conditions. If farmers cannot get accurate weather information in advance, it will have a negative impact on agricultural production activities. With the help of LoRa technology and smart sensors, weather information can be predicted to provide actionable insights into agricultural activities, thus facilitating scientific management and improving crop yields.
The benefits of leveraging LoRa solutions in agriculture
Incorporating LoRa into agriculture can bring numerous benefits. Smart irrigation and fertilization, for example, enable precision irrigation, avoids the waste of water resources, and reduce land damage from the overuse of fertilizers. Here are some other amazing benefits you can get when implementing smart agriculture applications.
Real-time data and production insight. Farmers can view soil moisture, sunlight intensity, production levels and more in real-time, so actionable insights can be generated to improve any unfavorable agricultural production conditions.
Boost in production and quality. Smart agriculture applications enable farmers to improve and automate crop treatment. The direct impact of efficient planting, watering, fertilizing and harvesting will be evident in improved yields and quality.
Save time and costs. By understanding weather patterns, farmers are better able to plan what needs to be done and schedule their time. Automated processing and treatment in agricultural activities results in lower labor and overall costs, and reduces unnecessary resource consumption and human error.
Remote monitoring. With LoRa wireless connectivity, both local and commercial farmers can remotely monitor multiple fields and large numbers of livestock wherever they are, while providing superior insights to improve important decisions anytime, anywhere.
IoT-based smart agriculture is a new dawn
The Internet of Things opens new doors and unlimited opportunities for farmers and companies operating in the agricultural market. IoT-driven techniques are transforming everyday agricultural practices in a disruptive way and are evolving as the world grows with more demand for agriculture. Through meaningful data collection, analysis and planning for smart agriculture applications, IoT has made farming easier and more controllable. Smart agriculture is becoming more common in some countries as the potential of IoT and other technology-based solutions re acknowledged.
The Internet of Things is sure to take the future of agriculture to a new level, and a Third Green Revolution is waiting. It’s optimistic that IoT-based smart agriculture will only prosper in the coming years. However, it’s also worth noting that farmers and ranchers are desperate for low-cost and low-power sensors and services to accelerate the global deployment of IoT technology. We provide excellent smart farming solutions as we have expertise in LoRa IoT business. If you are wondering about implementing any smart agriculture applications, just talk to our LoRa expert for some advice!