Utilization of the Internet of Things in Agriculture: Possibilities and Challenges

Agriculture is the backbone of most of nation. A nation’s economy mostly depends upon the growth of agriculture. It is a combination of several processes which include a lot of manpower and hard work. Internet of things (IoT) is the process of connecting several devices over a single network. It ensures the connectivity of several devices. Data can be transferred easily from one device to the other. Hence, the integration of IoT with agriculture seems to be an effective way to improve the productivity of agriculture. It reduces the problems faced by the farmers thereby increasing the profits. Agriculture seems to be a risky job as it mainly depends upon the unpredictable environmental conditions. During the production process, IoT devices like sensors could be used to monitor the environmental factors periodically and thereby take the remedial action. Harvesting is another phase in agriculture which involves much labour. But with the application of IoT, robotic arms along with few sensors could be used to harvest the crop. With the use of RFID technology, we could easily collect the data regarding the product from time to time. During the process of packing and grading, a few sensors which detect the ripe crop could be used. While transporting the produce to the required location, IoT plays a major role. The products could be tracked easily by using GPS and the products reach the destination without any wastage. Even after reaching the retail stores, IoT makes the job of the retailer easy by regularly giving the data about the products available to the server so that the order could be placed easily. So, IoT helps to observe and study the complete cycle of agriculture from the process of growing the crop to selling. The existing techniques of IoT in agriculture are briefly explained in this paper.