Significance of IoT in the Agricultural Sector

Agriculture has a crucial role to play in the overall growth of an agricultural nation. In our country, around 70% of the population are dependent on irrigation, while about one-third of the country’s revenue is derived from agriculture. The situation pertaining to farming has always been an obstacle in a country’s growth. The agricultural sector is boosting with the introduction of information and communication technology in this sector. Efforts are being made to enrich productivity and to decrement the cost of expenditure by utilizing the state-of-the-art technology and equipment. A feasible solution to this issue is smart agriculture by revolutionizing present-day conventional techniques of farming. To enhance effectiveness, productivity, and world market and to reduce manual labor, latency, and expenses, there is a necessity to divert toward the Internet of Things which will be gaining popularity in the coming years’ time. IoT is the network of interconnected devices to transfer the sensed data without human involvement. Hence, to achieve high productivity, IoT in synergy with agriculture will provide smart farming. Our study in this chapter deals with various issues and scope of IoT technology in the agricultural domain. Various challenges concerning smart agriculture are presented in this chapter. Later a smart IoT-based architectural system model is illustrated and discussed in detail. Its implementation with its benefits is also presented with clarity.