Revolutionizing Agriculture: Smart Farming's Tech-Powered Evolution

With how technological advancement has been of use for convenience to people's everyday lives, it should come of no surprise that it, too, has a beneficial contribution to today's agricultural processes, one of which is called "smart farming"

What exactly is smart farming?

Smart farming is a sustainable way of managing crops by the means of information and communication technology which has helped in raising the quality and quantity of the product while maximizing the use of human labor. Through the use of new technologies and tools, it has become easier for farmers to monitor their fields without having to check up on them personally thanks to the Internet of Things and its wireless smart sensors which gives them a full view of the field and as well as the current state of the crops and the land itself such as needing or lacking in moisture, growth of the crops, and so on.

aOther various functions of smart devices are used for farming such as soil analysis, monitoring crop health, determining accurate weather conditions, drones or robotics which provides the accurate amount of pesticides and fertilizers a crop needs, and many other functions.

Can smart farming be applied in the Philippines?

The Philippines has been making slow and steady steps into transitioning from traditional to modern technological or smart farming. In fact, there has been a recent launch of an automated greenhouse system in CALABARZON dedicated for the production of high quality Japanese musk melons. This type of greenhouse automatically provides the precise dosage of nutrients and proper irrigation, adjusting to the changes in temperature and lighting, and as well as giving the precise amount of fertilizer the plants need. This is done so that the crops grow in a consistent environment therefore no external nor internal factors would affect the quality of the product.

If more money is allotted for the agriculture, then more farmers would be able to take advantage and make use of smart farming in the Philippines, and not only in a small scale similar to the automated greenhouse, but at a much larger field, managing hundreds of thousands of crops in the most sustainable and efficient way whilst providing both quality and quantity products.

REFERENCES

Cb, H. (2023, February 15). Philippines launches first fully automated greenhouse fostering Smart Agriculture. AgroSpectrum Asia. https://agrospectrumasia.com/2023/02/15/philippines-fosters-smart-agriculture-by-launching-first-fully-automated-greenhouse.html

Cropin. (2022, February 23). IoT Application in Agriculture for Smart Farming. Cropin. https://www.cropin.com/iot-in-agriculture

Iberdrola. (2021, April 22). SMART FARMING AND PRECISION AGRICULTURE. Iberdrola. https://www.iberdrola.com/innovation/smart-farming-precision-agriculture

Muthumanickam, D., Poongodi, C., Ramalingam, K., Pazhanivelan, S., & Kaliaperumal, R. (2022). Smart Farming: Internet of Things (IoT)-Based Sustainable agriculture. Agriculture, 12(10), 1745. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12101745