The Internet of Things (IoT) is set to play an increasingly important role in helping the agriculture sector become more efficient and productive in the face of increasing pressure on land and food resources.
This is according to independent research carried out on behalf of global mobile satellite company Inmarsat for its ‘The Future of IoT in Enterprise – 2017’ report.
The respondents from 100 large agritech companies across the world indicated that the farming sector is rapidly taking to the development of IoT technology, with 62 per cent having already deployed IoT-based solutions and a further 27 per cent have plans to do so within the next six months.
This figure far outweighs the adoption levels seen in the mining, transport and energy sectors, according to Inmarsat.
Moreover, the research found that investment in IoT-based solutions is set to increase dramatically over the next few years.
Today, about five per cent of agritech businesses’ IT budgets are spent on the technology; a figure that is expected to more than double to around 12 per cent by 2022, indicating how important IoT will be for the sector going forward.
“With the planet estimated to reach a population of 10 billion people by 2050, humanity will face challenges with sustainable water sources, food production, and the best use of land to get the maximum yield from crops,” said Ayan Jobse-Alkemade, director of sector development agriculture at Inmarsat Enterprise.
“Additionally, using the most efficient method to deliver the resources will increasingly feature on the global agenda. In short, farmers, with the help of the agritech sector, need to get smarter, leaner and faster from field to fork.
“The only way to really do this is with the clever application of new technologies like IoT, and our research demonstrates how quickly agritech businesses are embracing this technology.
“IoT will fuel a revolution in the farming sector and bring gains that completely eclipse those made in the first Green Revolution in the 1970s.”