IoT Applications in the Agricultural Industry 3rd Edition

IoT Applications in the Agricultural Industry 3rd Edition

IoT Applications in the Agricultural Industry is the third consecutive strategy report from Berg Insight analysing the latest developments on the global smart farming market covering precision farming, agricultural drones, in-field monitoring, herd management and farm management software. This strategic research report from Berg Insight provides you with 200 pages of unique business intelligence, including 5-year industry forecasts and expert commentary on which to base your business decisions.

IoT Applications in the Agricultural Industry 3rd Edition

Smart farming refers to the application of information and communications technology in agricultural production systems. The electronification of agricultural equipment has advanced over several decades but has accelerated in recent years due to improvements in computing power, data storage and wireless data transfer. Berg Insight’s definition of smart farming solutions include systems installed in agricultural equipment, in the field or fitted to animals. Included are also agricultural software systems which ensure that agricultural production can be planned, scheduled and managed to achieve efficient operations.

Precision agriculture is about managing variations in the field to increase crop yield, raise productivity and reduce consumption of agricultural inputs. While solutions such as auto-guidance and machine monitoring and control via on-board displays today are mainstream technologies in the agricultural industry, telematics and Variable Rate Technology (VRT) are still in the early days of adoption. Most major agricultural equipment manufacturers have initiatives related to precision agriculture although strategies vary markedly. Leading providers of precision agriculture solutions include Deere & Company, Trimble, Topcon Positioning Systems, CNH Industrial through its subsidiary Raven Industries and Hexagon. Other significant vendors are AGCO, Ag Leader Technology and CLAAS Group. The agricultural drone market has recently emerged as a rapidly growing area in precision farming. The market is led by DJi with an installed base of more than 210,000 agricultural drones. Other important players are Draganfly, AgEagle, XAG and Beijing TT Aviation Technology. Industry players that provide data-oriented applications and agronomic services include Bayer’s The Climate Corporation, Syngenta, Farmers Edge and BASF.

The market for in-field sensor systems can be divided into three segments: environmental monitoring, pest monitoring and water management. These solutions typically incorporate wireless connectivity, data logging, cameras and sensors that record measurements of environmental parameters. Semios is the largest vendor in the space by far with an estimated installed base of 750,000 sensor nodes, followed by Pessl Instruments and Davis instruments with installed bases of around 80,000 and 50,000 devices respectively. Top specialised providers of integrated soil moisture monitoring solutions comprise Hortau, AquaSpy and CropX. Remote irrigation control solutions are offered by the largest OEMs of central pivot and drip irrigation systems including Valmont Industries with its Valley Irrigation brand, Lindsay Corporation with its Zimmatic brand and Netafim.

Precision livestock farming technologies are mainly applied to the husbandry of dairy cattle,poultry and pigs. Consolidation and growth of dairy farms have resulted in larger herds perfarmer, which makes manual observations challenging. Body-mounted sensor systems togetherwith herd management software are used to achieve satisfactory herd health and timelyinsemination when a cow is in oestrous. A majority of the leading dairy equipment OEMsincluding GEA Group, Lely and BouMatic partner with specialised companies to provideadvanced sensor technology for herd management. The world’s largest dairy equipmentmanufacturer DeLaval offers its in-house developed activity monitoring system along with itsmilking and dairy farming infrastructure solutions. Other significant providers of precisionlivestock farming technologies include Afimilk, Datamars, Nedap and Merck.

Berg Insight’s outlook for the smart farming solution market is positive as agricultural productionremains greatly underpenetrated by IoT technologies. The number of installed wireless devicesfor applications in agricultural production is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growthrate (CAGR) of 8.1 percent from 25.2 million connections at the end of 2022 to 37.1 millionconnected devices by 2027. Cellular connections amounted to 1.7 million at the end of 2022 andare expected to reach 3.9 million in 2027. The main application areas for cellular communicationscomprise telematics and in-field sensor systems. LPWA technologies are expected to achievethe highest growth rate and realise a significant market position in the remote monitoring andcontrol segment. 802.15.4-based standards comprise the most employed wireless technologydue to its wide adoption in dairy cow monitoring applications.