Summary
Farming using software has become a very important topic for farmers. This is due to the way it positively impacts our agricultural practices. It provides successful farming practices to help the farmers produce more, for the ever-growing human food requirements. It can be used to develop crop plans, measure and estimate profit, track activities, manage the labour, and allow the farmer to make better business decisions. Newer technologies such as satellite imagery, aerial drones, and GPS technology make business more sustainable. The newer IoT can make life easier for farmers by reducing their efforts and automating the farming process. It is best to hire software companies to build farming solutions to grow the business.
How can software help agriculture?
In the 21st century, the software is involved in almost every aspect of business life. The use of software for farming is not a new concept, it is just being integrated at a faster pace in 2022. The use of software for farmers in agriculture is that the software can, manage and optimize the operations of the business and the activities of production to ensure successful farming and tracking. The software can automate the activities such as data storage, monitoring conditions, and streamlining of the work schedules. Companies can personalize the software for the farmers as per their requests to serve business needs so that the particular business activities can be carried out to ensure successful farming using software. There are several benefits for farmers that use the software in their business activities, such as:
Develop crop plans:
The software can be used to provide a view of the farm which will allow them to plan their crop activities effectively. The software can help achieve a very detailed and comprehensive view that can be used to analyze, and collect, data which can be used for generating reports. These reports can then be used to make planned crop decisions. This feature will provide insights on how and when to conduct crop rotations plans, the ideal fertilizers that should be applied to the crops, and pest control methods to deploy for the crops.
Measure and estimate the profit
Perhaps the most important aspect for some farmers is the profit because of the volatility in the market. Farms need to keep a ledger of all the business expenses to measure the profits properly. This allows the software to estimate their business profits accurately. This makes the accounting of the software automated and easy to document.
Track the field activities
Farms have several employees on the site who are working on the premises carrying out multiple activities for the business. The software can then be used to track relevant information for the farm and the managers to oversee. The daily activities can be tracked, such as the track of yield, the growth of the crops, and the water quantities. The tracking of the information will allow for better planning for the farm. These vital pieces of information will allow the farmers to plan their seasons and draft a calendar that can keep notes of important events which will occur or have occurred throughout the farming cycle. There are several dedicated farm record keeping software which can be used by the farmers to keep updated calendars.
Manage portfolios for risk
This will help the farmers study the performance of the field with respect to the previous decisions. This can then help the farmers understand the portfolios and business decisions to choose to invest in and have a clear idea of what portfolios to avoid. The software can also account for the external risks for farming such as pests, diseases, market demands, and weather conditions. These factors are all beyond the control of the farmers, but machine learning and artificial intelligence can make use of the data to provide the best risk analysis. Software for farmers can alert them to external risks and allow them to make well-informed decisions, and how to make the best decisions with the sources at hand.
There are multiple benefits of software for farmers. These benefits are multiple. Farm record keeping software is also deployed by farmers for management purposes. The best farm management software can be used for labor management, livestock management, crop management, and tracking the progress of the field workers.
Which technology is more efficient for farmers?
In modern times, the technology adoption of digital technologies in agriculture has allowed the farmers to manage the fields, business, and crops all from one interface. These have allowed farmers to change the concept of farming by making the business safer, simple, efficient, and much more profitable. There are multiple technologies that are quite efficient for farmers and present in most software for farmers.
Satellite imagery
NDVI technology:
The crop yields of the farms, detection of threats to crops, and real-time field monitoring can be done using satellite data easily. The satellite can give imagery which allows the software to elicit useful information. NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) can allow for the detection of the shrivelled crop, plant health, and vegetation content.
CCCI technology:
The Canopy Chlorophyll Content Index can be used to help with the nutrition content of the crops. Then the NDRE (Normalized Difference RedEdge) can detect the nitrogen content of the crops, which is essential for ensuring healthy growth. Then the (MSAVI) Modified Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index is used to minimize the background impact that the soil can have on the early development stages of the plants.
Aerial drones
The use of drones by farmers provides them the opportunity to define the crop health, presence of weeds, biomass, and water saturation levels, on areas of the farm. These allow the delivery of the best images when compared to satellites. Since these drones are locally operated, they provide information faster and with the best images. These drones are also used to spray pesticides against insects. All of these benefits are provided alongside decreasing the direct exposure of farmers to chemical poisoning.
Merging of multiple datasets
Once these datasets are merged, the software has more data about weather conditions and crop yields which can provide farmers with the expected results. More data allows the farmers to be aware of all sorts of information such as soil conditions, and weather conditions, and allow them to draft a viable business plan.
GPS Agriculture and GIS software
Since the farming fields are based on location, software such as GIS, become useful for precision farming. Farmers can map the present and future changes in crop yields, plant health, precipitation, temperature and so much more. This allows GPS-based applications with smart machinery to optimize business activities. This way farmers can deal with certain areas, and conserve effort, time and money.
The farmers can benefit from the ever-growing digital agriculture technology. The best technology to use for farming is Agtech software for farmers. These advantages can reduce the consumption of fertilizers, nutrients, water and reduce detrimental impacts on the environment, reduce eutrophication on rivers, make efficiency better, reduce crop costs and so much more. This makes business sustainable, smart and cost-effective. These are one-of-a-kind technologies.
What is the latest technology in agriculture?
There are several technologies that are trending and the latest to be integrated into 2021. These technologies allow for successful farming using software.
Data collection and integration
The integration of smart machinery with satellite data on ground input is the next step that will advance precision agriculture.
Digital farming
There is new digital farming technology on the farms such as precision sprayers, and water sprinklers also have a huge role. Once the farmers are aware of where pesticides are needed, the sprayers can be programmed to make the work easier to cover the entire field, which increases profits and also protect the environment.
Automated field management
The equipment used on the farm will become more and smaller and eventually replace people. This makes the fleets of machines handle the field work, reducing manual effort and making work more efficient.
Robots and Sensors
The robots and sensors on the ground and in the air over farms are becoming more and more specialized. The farmers can collect data, from the sensors, which provide better data that can be used to improve the efficiency of the business and save costs.
Forecast the Weather
The technology of precision agriculture is used to predict weather conditions for harvesting or cropping.
How IoT can be used in agriculture?
The Internet of Things is a technology that allows multiple machines to communicate with each other effectively. IoT software for farmers is a modern solution for a system built that can monitor fields using sensors such as humidity, temperature, and soil while also automating the irrigation systems. IoT also allows the farmers to monitor the farms from anywhere on any platform.
The need for IoT
The exponential growth in the world population means that the world will need to produce up to 70% more food by 2050 according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. This means that there is a critical need to enhance the farming methods to make them more productive and maximally effective. Another concern over farming is that the structure is shifting as agricultural labor is declining, and recent examples are the great resignation. This is why internet connectivity can provide solutions for modern farming operations.
What IoT provides to farmers?
The IT solutions can help the farmers close the gap between supply and demand. This can be achieved by ensuring profitability, high yields, and the protection of the environment. This approach using IoT can help ensure the optimal application of resources in order to achieve increased crop yields, while also reducing the cost of operations. This is a form of precision agriculture, as it makes the most out of a business. These IoT technologies include wireless connections, IT services, software for farmers, and specialized equipment.
How IoT helps farmers
When farmers make use of IoT technologies to enable the farmers to enhance their operational productivity and also and reduce wastage in fertilizer quantity, the consumption of machinery fuel, electricity costs, and water costs. This IoT solution can monitor crop fields using sensors and also automate the irrigation system by using sprinklers or drip irrigation techniques. The farm can be monitored from anywhere. This allows taking the needed actions based on data. For instance, if the IoT devices detect a decrease in soil moisture level, the farmer can deploy the sprinklers manually or even have software that does this step without the supervision of the farmer. This is a smarter and much more effective approach to farming. IoT allows for successful farming using software.
How Folio3 software can help you achieve success for your farms?
Folio3 provides Agetch software solutions to our clients associated with the farming industry. Folio3 software for farmers allows the users to achieve success on farms by:
- Reducing the operational costs by automating the processes such as irrigation, fertilizer spread, and automating workflows.
- Making business more profitable by cutting out any added costs of labour, management, as the software will be able to provide these functionalities.
- Reduce human effort as the software can monitor, manage, and then take necessary actions that can reduce the efforts of the farmer.
- Increasing business productivity by providing the best course of action to take for the farm crops, harvesting seasons, and dealing with events.
- Making the business more and more efficient and effective. This can be achieved by streamlining events and making sure the right decisions are taken and the right times.
FAQs:
1. Which country has the most advanced agriculture technology and software?
Technology is not bound to borders. Multiple countries have different technologies that are used by them for farming purposes. For instance, the Dutch used windmills to keep their land from sinking underwater and also use it to grind flour. However, when talking about the advancement in the field of technology and software is concerned, perhaps the USA is one of the most advanced countries to deploy the technology on their farms.
Their companies are also working to produce Agtech solutions for arable and pasture farming. The USA has sprinkler systems, large self-driving tractors, drones, and software systems for farmers which make them a rapidly advancing country in terms of farming technology.
2. What is SaaS in agriculture?
SaaS in itself means the software as a service. The use of software as a service in agriculture means that the Agtech solutions in the market are deployed on the farms. These solutions include packages from companies that provide software services such as farm record keeping software, and farm management software for famers, and furthermore, this software can also be used for machines. The software can be developed, and then integrated with machinery to make them smart.
3. What are the three modern methods of farming?
There are new advancements in farming technologies day by day. These range from drones to robots to 3-d computer software which have transformed conventional farming. The three modern farming methods are:
- Monoculture. This is an approach where and single type of crop is grown at a specified farming region. This is an approach that can optimize the growth of plants and allow us to make the best choice for the business and the food production levels.
- Hydroponics. It is a subset of hydroculture. This farming method uses no soil at all. This method of farming requires growing healthy plants in nutrient-rich water solutions.
- Aeroponics. This method grows crops without soil or water. It makes use of an air environment laden with nutrients. Plant roots are suspended in the air and the root gets the nutrients by absorption from air. This preserves water quantities.
