A Global Review on Internet of Things: Enabling Smarter Agriculture

Abstract

The world population is expected to be 10 billion by 2050 which pursue agriculture sector to adopt new technologies to meet the growing demand. Addressing the future production and facing the challenges of climate change and maintaining the sustainability is a difficult task in the ensuing years. Improved technologies in genetics, cultural practices, weather forecasting, equipment and farm management can be effectively utilised for overcoming the challenges. Thus, the future farming system will be based on precision agriculture which can integrate the Internet based technologies for production. This paper discusses applicability of Internet of Things in Agriculture domains such as soil monitoring, irrigation monitoring, fertilizer application, pest and disease management, yield monitoring and forecasting, harvesting, environmental monitoring and control. This paper also addresses IoT applications in advanced technologies such as precision farming, microgreens and greenhouse monitoring that includes hydroponics, aquaponics and aeroponics. Arduino was the most widely used microcontroller in the studies followed by node MCU and Raspberry Pi. Among the sensors, temperature sensors were the most widely used sensors followed by humidity sensor and soil moisture sensor. Among the crops, most of the research were carried out in tomato followed by apple and lettuce. Continued research and deployment of IoT technologies are essential for developing resilient, data-driven agricultural models aligned with sustainable development goals.