With the Internet of Things (IoT) penetrating our homes and offices, IoT trends have been expanding into the agriculture sector. Agriculture has seen many technological transformation in the past decades, however smart farming is the thing of this decade and is here to stay! The global agriculture market is expected to reach $4.3 billion by the year 2023 at CAGR of 19.3%. With various trends in IoT and smart agriculture gadgets, efficient and smart farming have increased proliferation worldwide. What is smart farming? Smart farming is the use of IoT solutions and trends in the filed of agriculture. By implementing sensors and IoT devices, to collect environmental metrics, farmers cab make data oriented informed decision to attain optimum produce. Although this is still in the nascent stage, IoT in agriculture has scope for major improvements, which when implemented can provide for ample opportunities. The applications of IoT trends in the field of farming are numerous:

• Climate Monitoring – Most of the loss in the field of agriculture can be attributed to the lack of knowledge of weather. Weather conditions can make or break a crop and lack of this information affects the crop quality and quantity. IoT sensors placed in the farms gather data from the environment that helps choose the right crop for the right type of soil. Sensors can record weather conditions such as temperature, humidity and rainfall in real-time. Real time monitoring will alert any bad weather, enabling corrective action in time to save the crop.
• Greenhouse Automation – IoT sensors allow for automatic weather adjustments inside the greenhouse and also provide real-time information with respect to temperature, humidity and soil condition. This eliminates human intervention, thereby increasing accuracy and efficiency.
• Unmanned Aerial Vehicles – Drones are the hero of today’s technological growth! Agricultural drones is one of the breakthroughs in IoT trends. Drones aid in surveillance of a large extent of land, and collect data, which is even unthinkable of by human resources and are better at this compared to satellites and aircrafts. Moreover, drones help save labour by spraying, crop monitoring and fighting pests.
• Cattle management – Similar to monitoring crops, IoT devices fitted into animal farms help collect and analyze data of livestock. Livestock tracking and monitoring helps to track them and also keep a tab on their health. Real-time data feed help detect sick animals and take necessary precautions to help contain the spread. Nutritional insights, general health and performance of the cattle are regularly monitored.
• Predictive analysis – One of the best advantages of smart farming is the availability of data and the analysis performed on this data. The use of predictive data analytics help farmers make informed decisions and take necessary precautions, using the data to know the weather and yield characteristics well in advance.

Agriculture is the backbone of an economy! By integrating farming with technology, the supply demand gap will be successfully met with improved production and increased volume!