Modern agriculture faces many challenges related to the economy and crop productivity. Conventional production methods do not seem able to cope with these challenges, often making agriculture unsustainable. One response is to modernise agriculture by adopting technological solutions developed within the framework of Precision Agriculture.
Precision Agriculture is a method of field management in which inputs (pesticides, fertilisers, seeds, irrigation water) and cultivation practices are applied according to the needs of crops and soil, as these vary across space and time with changing environmental conditions.
Precision agriculture systems first identify the current condition of a crop or field. The collected data are then analysed and interpreted to identify management zones with common soil and agronomic features. Management zones enable variable-rate application of inputs, so that the actual needs of each area are met: saving resources, protecting the environment, and increasing yield and quality.
Key enabling technologies include:
- Distributed collection of field and environmental information: IoT, distributed sensor infrastructures, multi-/hyperspectral cameras (static or on UAVs), satellite imagery.
- Real-time information transfer: wireless sensor networks.
- Real-time data collection, storage and analysis: cloud computing.
- Information processing and extraction of conclusions: Big Data analysis and data mining.
- Real-time farmer notification and application of control rules in the field: web or smartphone applications and automated control in distributed nodes.
Despite the obvious benefits, Greece and Southern Europe are slow to adopt such systems, mainly because of (a) the lack of readily applicable technologies for a wide range of crops, (b) the high commercial cost of available systems, and (c) the complexity of installation, application and maintenance.
Universities and research institutes, working with private-sector bodies and producer groups (cooperatives), can play a key role in creating practical solutions that Greek farmers can apply immediately. The Telecommunications and Networks Laboratory (NITLab) of the University of Thessaly develops innovative IoT solutions with tangible applications in precision agriculture, with emphasis on 5G, cloud computing, wireless and sensor networks and internet applications.
The core system consists of spatially distributed, energy-autonomous nodes with integrated sensors for temperature, soil moisture, atmospheric pressure, solar energy and more. Data are transmitted wirelessly to gateways, forwarded to the cloud, and analysed by software with integrated Big Data and data-mining tools. Decisions are communicated to farmers through web applications and can also activate control mechanisms in the field, such as solenoid valves for irrigating specific areas.
Initial results from the laboratory's pilots are encouraging: precision agriculture in Greece can be highly effective, but it requires a change of mindset, cooperation among stakeholders and the gradual use of existing expertise to develop low-cost, high-accuracy tools tailored to each field and crop.
Prof. Athanasios Korakis, Director, Telecommunications & Networks Laboratory (NITLab), University of Thessaly
