Agriculture is at the forefront of Industry 4.0 transformation. The growing adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in farming is improving cultivation processes, as well as supply chains. It's leading to safer food and greater production efficiency. Here's a deeper look at how e-agriculture is transforming commercial farms.
Reasons for Growth in Smart Agriculture
Making the agriculture industry more efficient is crucial to the global economy, especially in developing countries. Agriculture is one of the economic areas that distinguishes developed countries from developing nations. Making agricultural technology smarter helps rural areas connect better with the broader economy in dealing with suppliers of all sizes. Soil testing and the use of 3D printers can also improve both the quantity and quality of crops.
Understanding the Nature of Smart Farming
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) defines e-agriculture as an emerging field that mixes agricultural informatics, agricultural development, and entrepreneurship. Data monitoring of these processes through the internet is leading to more operational efficiency.
The tools involved with improving farming processes include telephones, radio equipment, the internet, and satellite communications for weather monitoring and remote sensing. Other elements for achieving efficiency include data storage and analysis tools. This technology can bring together greater awareness for warning farmers about drought and storms. It will provide tools for better risk management and will be especially useful for making quick enhancements that would've been impossible a decade ago.
Key E-Agriculture Benefits
- Improving farming processes - Switching to smart farming allows farmers to collect, store and analyze data that helps them make daily adjustments to crops or equipment. It will require investing in IoT sensors that track multiple processes.
- Greater market efficiency - E-agriculture makes rural life easier in the sense it will lower costs for transactions and improve communications within supply chains. It will reduce food waste at various production stages and point farmers toward safer and faster growing techniques.
- Network sharing -The sharing of agricultural data through supply chains will give partners access to cost-saving intelligence and supply availability. This type of transparency can help increase trust among vendors across the supply chain.
Better services - Rural farmers will have the opportunity to be more connected with suppliers in real-time, which will help produce more accurate forecasts in the future. - More safe and secure food nutrients - Supply chain management will improve with access to comprehensive data analysis that will add traceability and transparency to processing that involves transporting crops to warehouses and retail outlets.
How E-Agriculture Changes Global Farming
Many of the ICT strategies that have emerged over the past few decades started out as a call toward exploring ways to make food more nutritious. It then evolved with concepts about smart technology with the proliferation of smartphones. Mobile devices used for remote monitoring can communicate with vendors throughout a supply chain to improve knowledge about availability of specific products. More and more retailers will use the data to prioritize suppliers and supplies.
However, e-agriculture is about more than just sophisticated technology that will transform farms around the world into more efficient global operations. Smart agriculture will integrate technology with cultural knowledge, which will help farmers on a local level. It will facilitate a new set of improved farming standards and greater ability for agricultural professionals to interact with each other.
Conclusion
The adoption of e-agriculture is already underway in various parts of the world. It will only spread throughout the next decade since it will be a win-win-win for farmers, suppliers, and consumers alike. It will help cut production costs, reduce waste and improve the nutritional value of food. Look for more talk about it in the coming years as part of a larger social plan for a sustainable society.