IoT Applications in the Agricultural Industry 4th Edition

IoT Applications in the Agricultural Industry 4th Edition

IoT Applications in the Agricultural Industry is the fourthconsecutive strategy report from Berg Insight analysing the latestdevelopments on the global smart farming market covering precisionfarming, agricultural drones, in-field monitoring, herd managementand farm management software. This strategic research reportfrom Berg Insight provides you with 240 pages of unique businessintelligence, including 5-year industry forecasts and expertcommentary on which to base your business decisions.

IoT Applications in the Agricultural Industry 4th Edition

Smart farming refers to the application of information and communications technology inagricultural production systems. The electronification of agricultural equipment has advancedover several decades but has accelerated in recent years due to improvements in computingpower, data storage and wireless data transfer. Berg Insight’s definition of smart farmingsolutions includes systems installed in agricultural equipment, in the field or fitted to animals.

Included are also agricultural software systems that ensure that agricultural production can beplanned, scheduled and managed to achieve efficient operations.Precision agriculture is about managing variations in the field to increase crop yield, raiseproductivity and reduce consumption of agricultural inputs. While solutions such as auto-guidance and machine monitoring and control via on-board displays today are mainstreamtechnologies in the agricultural industry, telematics and variable rate technology (VRT) are notyet widely adopted. Most major agricultural equipment manufacturers have initiatives related toprecision agriculture, although strategies vary markedly. Leading providers of precisionagriculture solutions include Deere & Company, AGCO via its joint venture with Trimble, TopconPositioning Systems, Hexagon, and CNH Industrial through its subsidiary Raven Industries.Other significant vendors are Ag Leader Technology, Kubota and CLAAS Group. The agriculturaldrone market has recently emerged as a rapidly growing area in precision farming. The marketis led by DJI with an installed base of more than 300,000 agricultural drones. Other importantplayers are Draganfly, AgEagle, XAG and Beijing TT Aviation Technology. Industry players thatprovide data-oriented applications and agronomic services include Bayer’s Climate LLC,Syngenta, Farmers Edge and BASF.

The market for in-field sensor systems can be divided into three segments: environmentalmonitoring, pest monitoring and water management. These solutions typically incorporatewireless connectivity, data logging, cameras and sensors that record measurements ofenvironmental parameters. Semios (Almanac) is the largest vendor in the space by far with aninstalled base of over 500,000 sensor nodes, followed by Pessl Instruments and DavisInstruments with estimated installed bases of around 80,000 and 50,000 devices respectively.The top specialised providers of integrated soil moisture monitoring solutions comprise CropX,Hortau and WiseConn. Remote irrigation control solutions are offered by the largest OEMs ofcentral-pivot and drip irrigation systems including Valmont Industries with its Valley Irrigationbrand, 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, Farmnote, Nedap, Fullwood JOZ, smaXtec andMerck.

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 7.6 percent from 26.5 million connections at the end of 2023 to 38.2 millionconnected devices by 2028. Cellular connections amounted to roughly 2.0 million at the end of2023 and are expected to reach 4.1 million in 2028. The main application areas for cellularcommunications comprise farm equipment telematics and in-field sensor systems. LPWAtechnologies are expected to achieve the highest growth rate and realise a significant marketposition in the remote monitoring and control segment. 802.15.4-based standards comprise themost employed wireless technology due to its wide adoption in dairy cow monitoringapplications.