How IoT Is Helping Agriculture In Australia

September 24, 2018

Technology & Agriculture

In a large continent that will continue to face enormous challenges when it comes to farming, crop production and ongoing drought-to-flood climate fluctuations over the decades, it is terrific to know that the Internet of Things (IoT) technology has the potential to be agriculture’s saviour, supporter and success story.

Big future

How IoT is helping agriculture in Australia is multi-pronged though there are several recurring themes: creating smarter and better farming methods, developing a more streamlined production and also supplying farmers with more information about what is happening on the land so they can make decisions faster when changes occur.

IoT helps keep us competitive

Few would argue that agriculture and farming will become increasingly important in decades to come as global populations grow and pressures of food production, become more common. While Australia is not even nudging 30 million yet, we still want to feed our people and be competitive in a global market.

The promising future of smart agricultural solutions using IoT in Australia

Some of the ways IoT is helping agriculture in Australia include:

High-tech IoT sensors (which cover light, humidity, temperature, soil moisture and so on) placed in fields allow farmers to obtain detailed maps of both the topography and resources in the area, as well as variables such as acidity and soil temperature
Smartphones can remotely monitor equipment, crops and livestock, as well as obtain statistics on livestock feeding and produce
Large farm owners will be able to incorporate wireless IoT applications to collect data regarding the location, well-being, and health of their cattle
Some companies are developing self-driving tractors, which would free up farmers to do other tasks
Smart farming – which is the use of farming management concept using modern technology to increase the quantity and quality of agriculture outcomes – will allow growers to reduce waste
IoT and smart farming could help both large and small operators, including organic farming and family farming
An area which will be increasingly important is of course water supply, distribution and storage and IoT is helping agriculture in Australia achieve this thanks to the development of technologies which focus on improved checks on topography or soil variability, better yields and water use efficiency
The benefits of using ground-and aerial based drones. This drone technology is being hailed as a big winner for agriculture because it has the capacity to collect data covering everything from working out plant height measurement to weed pressure mapping.

This is just the start of how IoT will help agriculture in Australia as more high tech innovations will emerge to help those in the industry. At a time of drought when farmers are doing it tough around the nation, this is very welcome news indeed.