Agriculture and Industry 4.0
Digitalisation of agriculture
Industry 4.0 is transforming the production capabilities of all industries, including the agricultural sector. Connectivity is a vital element of this transformation and IoT a key enabling this technology that is increasingly taking part of the agricultural equipment.
The digitalisation of agriculture is based on the development and introduction of new tools and machines in production.
Transformation of the production methods and tools
Connected Tractors
The implementation of Industry 4.0 to tractors are key factors of the development of the agricultural industry. Connectivity and localisation technologies (GPS) are optimizing the usage of these agricultural tools. This includes driver’s assistance to enhance routes and decrease harvesting and crop treatment, while reducing fuel use. But it also relies on the deployment of sensors to enable precision agriculture (PA). The sensors can better monitor and control crop treatments, enabling important gains in efficiency and productivity. In addition, connectivity is also enabling models developed by businesses to be more precise in terms of tracking by using better equipment which contributed to more precise billing of equipment use by contractors.
Automation
Another important transformation in the agricultural production process is automation. Automation will increase productivity by reducing the need for human workforce. This can take several forms, for example the automation of vehicles, the development of task specific robots that can automatically manufacture parts in the production line.
New Measurement Tools
The ability to collect more data and measurement about the production such as the quality of the soil, irrigation levels, weather conditions, presence of insects and pests. This ability also takes several forms such as sensors deployed on tractors and implements to direct deployment of sensors in the field and soil or in drones or satellite imagery to collect measurements from above.
An interesting statistic provided by Euractiv:
Source: https://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/infographic/farming-4-0-the-future-of-agriculture/
Task:
Additional Task: https://h5p.org/node/726119