What is IoT Agriculture?
IoT means Internet Of Things, which stands for physical objects that are intimately connected to the Internet. In the context of agriculture, these objects can be of various types:
Specific sensors placed inside silos
Meteorological Cabins
Sensors that monitor the soil
Agricultural vehicles that send and receive data acquired in the field
Drones
IoT Agriculture then indicates all those physical objects that acquire data or perform actions within our field, and such information is sent/received using the Internet.
These objects are of fundamental importance because they allow us to:
Monitor weather conditions (precipitation, temperature, air humidity, leaf wetness, wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure, dew point)
Monitor soil conditions (soil moisture, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content, electrical conductivity)
Monitor crop development (Degree days, vegetation indices)
Know crop operations in real time and track their costs
In this article we will discuss on the parts related to monitoring pedo-climatic conditions, but if you would like more information on monitoring crop development, we leave below three articles that discuss the part related to the crop monitor and agricultural activities operations:
Now let's learn more about pedo-climatic sensors
Pedo-climatic sensors
Pedo-climatic sensors enable remote and constant monitoring of several variables. Below is a detailed list of variables that can be measured:
Air Temperature
Air Humidity
Precipitation / Rainfall
Atmospheric Pressure
Wind Speed
Wind Direction
Degree Days
Potential Evapotranspiration
Soil Temperature
Soil Humidity
Soil Nitrogen content
Soil Phosphorus content
Soil Potassium content
it is essential to say, however, that these sensors return us data and nothing more, and thus by themselves have little ability to bring implications to agricultural practices. In fact, such data must be processed by specific algorithms or formulas in order to transform this data into useful information for agricultural purposes.
All of these variables can be measured by individual sensors or by actual meteorological booths, if you would like to know the prices and terms of service please contact us ( below )
Applications of pedo-climatic sensors
Below are ten different instances of applications we have seen in our experience that their sharing may be useful to others or give insights into their potential:
Automated irrigation systems alerts, One of the most important applications is related to irrigation. By combining data derived from air temperature, precipitation and soil moisture, one has the ability to generate absolutely useful graphs, below is an example of a graph.
This chart allows you to identify the periods in which it is recommended to irrigate based on the alert values 40 (critical) and 60 (caution). With these difficult graphs you are going to apply excess irrigation volumes.
Forecast weather data, Weather forecasts are fairly accurate, but often the data used by various companies to be able to make the weather forecast comes from cabins that may be more than 100 km away from our field. When this happens it is very likely that the weather forecast is not accurate for our field. This is where the weather cabin comes in and solves all the problems.
Precision nutrition management, In order to carry out precision fertilization, i.e. provide the right dose of fertilizer at the right time, it is essential to know the value of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the soil. nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium sensors helped two of our customers determine the right date and dose of fertilization for the durum wheat production.
Climate control in greenhouses, Controlling the climate component in greenhouses is of fundamental importance to accelerate or decelerate crop growth. Our sensors are easy to install and we have had strong experience with implementations in various contexts.
Environmental monitoring and action, During the winter it is essential to know the air temperature for developing vegetable crops. In fact, one of our customers has set an alert in our application that warns him if the air temperature is lower than 1 degree, and this allows him to spray his crops to protect against a further drop in temperature which would lead to serious damage.
Pest and Disease Management, Using specialized calculation algorithms we can give you a value of presence or risk of diseases and insects that are related to crops. Allowing you to carry out preventive and curative treatments.
Alerts, In our application you can set the alerts as you wish. This functionality is essential to unleash the full potential of using our cabins. This way you will always remain updated on the pedo-climatic conditions of your field
Insurance, One of the potential applications of weather booths is having updated data in the event of floods and/or agricultural accidents so in the event of discussions, a series of useful information is available to determine the compensation due.
Field notebook and inspections by authorities, phytopharmaceutical products must be distributed in the environment if environmental conditions allow it. In case of inspections, it is essential to have data that supports the application of a phytopharmaceutical product in the environment on a given day
Organic inspection and certification, Thanks to the monitoring of the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content we can identify if the farmer has carried out mineral fertilizations that are not permitted in organic farming.
Cost-Benefit Analysis
If we consider the areas of application of cabins and pedo-climatic sensors, they stand out as those with the lowest initial investment cost in the field of precision agriculture but which allow for savings:
Nitrogen Fertilization
Phosphorus Fertilization
Potassium Fertilization
Irrigation
Pest and disease management
Certifications, checks and insurance
Considering all this we can state that if the user uses and displays the data deriving from the pedo-climatic sensors and cabins with a certain frequency, without any doubt it allows saving at least 10% of each production factor.
What if I don't have time to look at sensor/cab data frequently?
If you don't have time to view the data frequently, set the alerts as you see fit and you will receive detailed alerts.
Explore our Precision Agriculture App
Contact us and find out how we can help you bring our sensors and application into the field
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