Internet-Of-Things IoT-Based Smart Agriculture Tow

This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been
fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2932609, IEEE Access
Date of publication xxxx 00, 0000, date of current version xxxx 00, 0000.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2019.Doi Number
Internet-of-Things (IoT) based Smart Agriculture:

Towards Making the Fields Talk
1 1
Muhammad Ayaz (Senior Member, IEEE), Mohammad Ammad-uddin (Senior Member,
2 3 1
IEEE), Zubair Sharif , Ali Mansour (Senior Member, IEEE), and el-Hadi M. Aggoune
(Senior Member, IEEE)
1
Sensor Networks and Cellular Systems Research Center, University of Tabuk, Tabuk 71491, Saudi Arabia
2
CS Department, COMSATS University Islamabad, Sahiwal, Pakistan
3
Lab STICC, UMR 6285 CNRS, ENSTA Bretagne, 2, Rue F. Verny, 29806, Brest Cedex 9, France
Corresponding author: Muhammad Ayaz (e-mail: ayazsharif@ut.edu.sa).
This work was supported in part by the SNCS Research Center and in part by the Deanship of Scientific Research at
The University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia
ABSTRACT Despite the perception people may have regarding the agricultural process, the reality is that
today's agriculture industry is data-centered, precise, and smarter than ever. The rapid emergence of the
Internet-of-Things (IoT) based technologies redesigned almost every industry including ―smart agriculture‖
which moved the industry from statistical to quantitative approaches. Such revolutionary changes are
shaking the existing agriculture methods and creating new opportunities along a range of challenges. This
article highlights the potential of wireless sensors and IoT in agriculture, as well as the challenges expected
to be faced when integrating this technology with the traditional farming practices. IoT devices and
communication techniques associated with wireless sensors encountered in agriculture applications are
analyzed in detail. What sensors are available for specific agriculture application, like soil preparation, crop
status, irrigation, insect and pest detection are listed. How this technology helping the growers throughout
the crop stages, from sowing until harvesting, packing and transportation is explained. Furthermore, the use
of unmanned aerial vehicles for crop surveillance and other favorable applications such as optimizing crop
yield is considered in this article. State-of-the-art IoT-based architectures and platforms used in agriculture
are also highlighted wherever suitable. Finally, based on this thorough review, we identify current and
future trends of IoT in agriculture and highlight potential research challenges.
INDEX TERMS food quality and quantity, Internet-of-Things (IoTs), smart agriculture, advanced
agriculture practices, urban farming, agriculture robots, automation, future food expectation.
I. INTRODUCTION result, these nations will be more careful about their diet
To improve the agricultural yield with fewer resources and and food quality; hence, consumer preferences can move
labor efforts, substantial innovations have been made from wheat and grains to legumes and, later, to meat. In
throughout human history. Nevertheless, the high order to feed this larger, more urban, and richer population,
population rate never let the demand and supply match food production should double by 2050 [4, 5]. Particularly,
during all these times. According to the forecasted figures, the current figure of 2.1 billion tons of annual cereal
in 2050, the world population is expected to touch 9.8 production should touch approximately 3 billion tons, and
billion, an increase of approximately 25% from the current the annual meat production should increase by more than
figure [1]. Almost the entire mentioned rise of population is 200 million tons to fulfill the demand of 470 million tons
forecasted to occur among the developing countries [2]. On [6, 7].
the other side, the trend of urbanization is forecasted to Not only for food, but crop production is becoming equally
continue at an accelerated pace, with about 70% of the critical for industry; indeed crops like cotton, rubber, and
world‘s population predicted to be urban until 2050 gum are playing important roles in the economies of many
(currently 49%) [3]. Furthermore, income levels will be nations. Furthermore, the food-crops-based bioenergy
multiples of what they are now, which will drive the food market started to increase recently. Even before a decade,
demand further, especially in developing countries. As a only the production of ethanol utilized 110 million tons of
VOLUME XX, 2019 1
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
M. Ayaz : Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)
coarse grains (approximately 10% of the world production) same field rotate season-to-season and biologically reach
[7, 8]. Due to the rising utilization of food crops for bio-fuel different stages of their cycle within a year in areas where
production, bio-energy, and other industrial usages, food locational and temporal differences result in specific growth
security is at stake. These demands are resulting in a further requirements to optimize the crop production. To respond
increase of the pressure on already scarce agricultural to these demands with a range of issues, farmers need new
resources. technology-based methods to produce more from less land
and with fewer hands.
Labor OR Considering the standard farming procedures, farmers need
Climate
Manpower to visit the agriculture sites frequently throughout the crop
Effects
Land
life to have a better idea about the crop conditions. For this,
the need of smart agriculture arises, as 70% of farming time
Resource
is spent monitoring and understanding the crop states
Automation
Key
Optimization Water instead of doing actual field work [11]. Considering the
Drivers of vastness of the agriculture industry, it incredibly demands
Technology in for technological and precise solutions with the aim of
Agriculture
Chemicals
Fertilizers sustainability while leaving minimum environmental
impact. Recent sensing and communication technologies
Pesticides
provide a true remote ―eye in the field‖ ability in which
Higher
farmers can observe happenings in the field without being
Higher
Population
Yields
Herbicides in the field. Wireless sensors are facilitating the monitoring
of crops constantly with higher accuracy and are able to,
Food Cash
Quality
Crops Crops
most importantly, detect early stages of unwanted state.
Industry
Food This is the reason why modern agriculture involves the
usage of smart tools and kits, from sowing to crop
Weather and Energy
Urbanization Geographic
harvesting and even during storage and transportation.
Animals
Effects Timely reporting using a range of sensors makes the entire
operation not only smart but also cost effective due to its
FIGURE 1: Key Drivers of Technology in Agriculture Industry precise monitoring capabilities. Variety of autonomous
tractors, harvesters, robotic weeders, drones, and satellites
Unfortunately, only a limited portion of the earth‘s surface currently complement agriculture equipment. Sensors can
is suitable for agriculture uses due to various limitations, be installed and start collecting data in a short time, which
like temperature, climate, topography, and soil quality, and is then available online for further analyses nearly
even most of the suitable areas are not homogenous. When immediately. Sensor technology offers crop and site-
zooming the versatilities of landscapes and plant types, specific agriculture, as it supports precise data collection of
many new differences start to emerge that can be difficult every site.
to quantify. Moreover, the available agricultural land is Recently, the Internet-of-Things (IoT) is beginning to
further shaped by political and economic factors, like land impact a wide array of sectors and industries, ranging from
and climate patterns and population density, while rapid manufacturing, health, communications, and energy to the
urbanization is constantly posing threats to the availability agriculture industry, in order to reduce inefficiencies and
of arable land. Over the past decades, the total agriculture improve the performance across all markets [12-16]. If
land utilized for food production has experienced a decline looking closely, one feels that the current applications are
[9]. In 1991, the total arable area for food production was only scratching the surface and that the real impact of IoT
19.5 million square miles (39.47% of the world‘s land and its uses are not yet witnessed. Still, considering this
area), which was reduced to approximately 18.6 million progress, especially in the near past, we can predict that IoT
square miles (37.73% of the world‘s land area) in 2013 technologies are going to play a key role in various
[10]. As such, the gap between demand and supply of food applications of the agriculture sector. This is because of the
is becoming more significant and alarming with the passage capabilities offered by IoT, including the basic
of time. communication infrastructure (used to connect the smart
Further examination showed that every crop field has objects—from sensors, vehicles, to user mobile devices—
different characteristics that can be measured separately in using the Internet) and range of services, such as local or
terms of both quality and quantity. Critical characteristics, remote data acquisition, cloud-based intelligent information
like soil type, nutrient presence, flow of irrigation, pest analysis and decision making, user interfacing, and
resistance, etc., define its suitability and capability for a agriculture operation automation. Such capabilities can
specific crop. In most of situations, the differentiations of revolutionize the agriculture industry which probably one
characteristics can exist within a single crop field, even if of most inefficient sectors of our economic value chain
the same crop is being cultivated in entire farm; hence, site- today. To summarize this discussion, figure 1 provides the
specific analyses are required for optimal yield production. main drivers of technology, while figure 2 highlights the
Further, adding the dimension of time, specific crops in the
VOLUME XX, 2019 2
M. Ayaz: Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)
major hurdles of technology implementation in smart  Role of IoT to cope these limitations and other issues
agriculture. like resources shortage and their precise use, food
spoilage, climate changes, environmental pollution,
and urbanization.
Standards  Strategies and policies that need to be considered
Infancy when implementing IoT-based technologies
 Critical issues that are left to solve and possible
Untrained Fragmented solutions that are further required, while suggestions
Manpower Market are provided considering these challenges.
This article is a compendium of knowledge that can help
Challenges in the researchers and agriculture engineers implementing the
Technology IoT-based technologies to achieve the desired smart
Implementation agriculture. The rest of this document is organized as
Coverage follows. Section II provides a deep overview of major
Fear of new applications of IoT in agriculture and what we can achieve
and
Technology
Connectivity by utilizing these technologies. Section III gives insight
regarding the role of IoT in advanced agriculture practices,
High like vertical farming (VF), hydroponics, and phenotyping,
Investments to manage the issues of increased urban population. Section
IV highlights various technologies and equipment, like
sensors, robots, tractors, and communication devices, being
FIGURE 2: Major Hurdle's in Technology Implementation for Smart used to implement IoT in this industry. Accepting the worth
Agriculture
of UAVs in precision agriculture, Section V caters
Researchers and engineers around the globe are proposing application achievements that are not possible even using
different methods and architectures and based on that other latest technologies. Food safety and transportation are
suggesting a variety of equipment to monitor and fetch the other critical areas requiring focus to overcome the hunger
information regarding crop status during different stages, issues which did not get the attention of researchers as it
considering numerous crop and field types. Focusing on the deserves. Section VI supplies the role of the IoT to ensure
market demand, many leading manufactures are providing a food quality for longer periods and to deliver to remote
range of sensors, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), robots, areas. Section VII identifies current and future trends of this
communication devices, and other heavy machinery to technology in the crop industry by highlighting potential
deliver the sensed data. In addition, various commissions, research challenges. Finally, Section VIII concludes this
food and agriculture organizations, and government bodies article.
are developing polices and guidelines to observe and
regulate the use of these technologies in order to maintain II. MAJOR APPLICATIONS
food and environment safety [17-20]. By implementing the latest sensing and IoT technologies in
There are reasonable efforts that highlight the role of the agriculture practices, every aspect of traditional farming
IoT in the agriculture industry, but most of the published methods can be fundamentally changed. Currently,
work focuses only on applications [10, 21, 22]. Most of the seamless integration of wireless sensors and the IoT in
existing articles either provide no insight or show limited smart agriculture can raise agriculture to levels which were
focus on the various IoT-based architectures, prototypes, previously unimaginable. By following the practices of
advanced methods, the use of IoT for food quality, and smart agriculture, IoT can help to improve the solutions of
other future issues considering the latest facts and figures. many traditional farming issues, like drought response,
This manuscript examines the trends in IoT-based yield optimization, land suitability, irrigation, and pest
agriculture research and reveals numerous key issues that control. Figure 3 lists a hierarchy of major applications,
must be addressed in order to transform the agriculture services and wireless sensors being used for smart
industry by utilizing the recent IoT developments. The agriculture applications. While, major instances in which
major contribution of this article is to provide real insight the advanced technologies are helping at various stages to
regarding: enhance overall efficiency are discussed below.
 Expectations of the world from the agriculture
industry A. SOIL SAMPLING AND MAPPING
 Very recent developments in IoT, both scholarly and Soil is the ―stomach‖ of plants, and its sampling is the first
in industry are highlighted and how these step of examination to obtain field-specific information,
developments are helping to provide solutions to the which is then further used to make various critical decisions
agriculture industry. at different stages. The main objective of soil analysis is to
 Limitations, the agriculture industry is facing. determine the nutrient status of a field so that measures can
3 VOLUME XX, 2019
be taken accordingly when nutrient deficiencies are found. Currently, manufacturers are providing a wide range of
Comprehensive soil tests are recommended on an annual toolkits and sensors that can assist farmers to track the soil
basis, ideally in Spring; however, based on soil conditions quality and, based on this data, recommend remedies to
and weather consents, it may be done in in Fall or Winter avoid its degradation. These systems allow for the
[23]. The factors that are critical to analyze the soil nutrient monitoring of soil properties, such as texture, water-holding
levels include soil type, cropping history, fertilizer capacity, and absorption rate, which ultimately help to
application, irrigation level, topography, etc. These factors minimize erosion, densification, salinization, acidification,
give insight regarding the chemical, physical, and and pollution (by avoiding excessive use of fertilizer). Lab-
biological statuses of a soil to identify the limiting factors in-a-Box, a soil testing tool kit developed by AgroCares, is
such that the crops can be dealt accordingly. Soil mapping considered a complete laboratory in itself based on its
opens the door to sowing different crop varieties in a offered services [24]. By using this, any farmer, without
specific field to better match soil properties accordingly, having any lab experience, can analyze up to 100 samples
like seed suitability, time to sow, and even the planting per day (overall, more than 22,000 nutrient samples a year)
depth, as some are deep-rooted and others less. without visiting any lab.
Furthermore, growing multiple crops together could also Drought is a major concern which limits the productivity of
lead to smarter use of agriculture, simply making the best crop yield. Most of the regions around the globe face this
use of resources. issue with various intensities. To deal with this issue,
especially in very rural areas, remote sensing is being used
Smart to obtain frequent soil moisture data which helps to analyze
the agricultural drought in far regions. For this purpose, the
Agriculture Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite was
launched in 2009 which provides global soil moisture maps
every, one to two days. Authors in [25] used SMOS L2 to
Applications Services Sensors calculate the Soil Water Deficit Index (SWDI) in Spain in
2014. In this effort, they followed different approaches to
obtain the soil water parameters in order to compare with
Water and the SWDI acquired from in situ data. In [26], authors used
Nutration Irrigation Leaf Sensors the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer
Monitoring (MODIS) sensor to map various soil functional properties
to estimate the land degradation risk for sub-Saharan
Diseases and Bug Africa. The soil maps and field survey data, which covered
Pesticides Stem Sensors
Monitoring all major climate zones on the continent, were used to
develop the prediction models.
Sensors and vision based technologies are helpful to decide
Temprature the distance and depth for sowing the seed efficiently. Like
Soil Monitoring Fungicides
Sesnors
in [27], sensor and vision based autonomous robot called
Agribot is developed for sowing seeds. The robot can
Humidity
perform on any agricultural lands on which the self-
Crop Health
Monitoring
Herbicides
Sensors
awareness of the robot‘s placement is ascertained through
the global and local maps generated from Global
Positioning System (GPS) while the on-board vision system
Fruit Size is paired with a personal computer. Advancing further,
Machinery Fertilization
Sensors various non-contact sensing methods are proposed to
determine the seed flow rate as in [28] where the sensors
are equipped with LEDs; consist of infrared, visible light
...
Environment Soil Preparation and laser-LED as well as an element as a radiation receiver.

The output voltage varies based on the movement of the
seeds through the sensor and band of light rays, and falling
of shades on the elements of receiver. The signal
Yield Condition information, linked to the passing seeds, is used to measure
the seed flow rate.
B. IRRIGATION
Yield Storage About 97% of Earth‘s water is salt-water held by oceans
and seas, and only the remaining 3% is fresh water—more
FIGURE 3: General Hierarchy of Possible Applications, Services and than two-third of which is frozen in the forms of glaciers
Sensors for Smart Agriculture and polar ice caps [29, 30]. Only 0.5% of the unfrozen fresh
water is above the ground or in the air, as the rest lies
VOLUME XX, 2019 4
underground [31]. In short, humanity relies on this 0.5% to C. FERTILIZER

fulfill all its requirements and to maintain the ecosystem, as A fertilizer is a natural or chemical substance that can
enough fresh water must be kept in rivers, lakes, and other provide important nutrients for the growth and fertility of
similar reservoirs to sustain it. It is worth mentioning that plants. Plants mainly need three key macronutrients:
solely the agriculture industry uses approximately 70% of nitrogen (N) for leaf growth; phosphorus (P) for root,
this accessible fresh water [32, 33]. In many countries, flowers, and fruit development; potassium (K) for stem
situation rises to 75% e.g. Brazil, further in some growth and water movement [38]. Any sort of nutrients
underdeveloped countries, even it exceeds 80% [34]. The deficiency or applying them improperly can be seriously
main reason for this high water consumption is the harmful for the plant health. More importantly, excessive
monitoring procedure as even in 2013, crops visual use of fertilizer not only results in financial losses but also
inspection for irrigation decision-making was very creates harmful impacts to the soil and environment by
common, as nearly 80% of farms in United States were depleting the soil quality, poisoning ground water, and
observed by this [35]. According to the UN Convention to contributing to global climate changes. Overall, crops
Combat Desertification (UNCCD) estimates in 2013 show absorb less than half the nitrogen applied as fertilizer, while
that there were 168 countries affected by desertification and remaining either emitted to the atmosphere or lost as run
by 2030, almost half of the world population will be living off. Unbalanced use of fertilizer leads to an imbalance in
in areas with high water shortages [36]. Considering the both soil nutrient levels and global climate as, reportedly,
figures of water crises around the globe, same time its around 80% of the world‘s deforestation has occurred due
increasing demands in agriculture and many other to agricultural practices alone [39].
industries, it should be provided to places only where it is Fertilization under smart agriculture helps to precisely
needed, most importantly, in required quantities. For this estimate the required dose of nutrients, ultimately minimize
purpose, increased awareness has been implemented to their negative effects on the environment. Fertilization
conserve the existing under-stress water resources by requires site-specific soil nutrient level measurements based
employing more efficient irrigation systems. on various factors, such as crop type, soil type, soil
Various controlled irrigation methods, like drip irrigation absorption capability, product yield, fertility type and
and sprinkler irrigation, are being promoted to tackle the utilization rate, weather condition, etc. The reason is that
water wastage issues, which were also found in traditional the measurement of soil nutrient level is not only expensive
methods like flood irrigation and furrow irrigation. Both the but also time consuming, as, typically, investigations of soil
crop quality and quantity are badly affected when facing samples at each location are required. To better depict this
water shortage, as irregular irrigation, even excess, leads to discussion, figure 4, summarizes the major inputs,
reduced soil nutrients and provokes different microbial processes and resultant outputs of smart agriculture.
infections. It is not a simple task to accurately estimate the New IoT-based fertilizing approaches help to estimate the
water demand of crops, where factors like crop type, spatial patterns of nutrients requirements with a higher
irrigation method, soil type, precipitation, crop needs, and accuracy and minimum labor requirements [40, 41]. For
soil moisture retention are involved. Considering this fact, a example, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
precise soil and air moisture control system using the (NDVI) uses aerial/satellite images to monitor crop nutrient
wireless sensors not only makes an optimal use of water but status [42, 43]. Basically, NDVI is based on the reflection
also leads to better crop health. of visible and near-infrared light from vegetation and is
The current situation of irrigation methods is expected to be used to estimate the crop health, vegetation vigor, and
changed by adopting the emerging IoT technologies. A density, further contributing to assess the soil nutrient level.
significant increase in crop efficiency is expected with the Such precise implementation can significantly improve the
use of IoT based techniques, such as crop water stress index fertilizer efficiency, simultaneously reducing the side
(CWSI)-based irrigation management [35]. For this, effects to the environment. Many recent enabling
attaining crop canopy at different periods and air technologies, like GPS accuracy [44], geo mapping [45],
temperature are needed for the calculation of CWSI. A Variable Rate Technology (VRT) [46, 47], and autonomous
wireless sensors based monitoring system where all the vehicles [48], are strongly contributing to IoT-based smart
field sensors are connected to collect the mentioned fertilization.
measurements, further transmit to processing center where Other than precision fertilization, fertigation [49] and
corresponding intelligent software applications are used to chemigation [50, 51] are other benefits of IoT. In these
analyze the farm data. Not only this but information from methods, water-soluble matters, such as fertilizers, soil
other sources including weather data and satellite imaging amendments, and pesticides, can be applied through the
is applied to CWSI models for water need assessment, and irrigation system. Although, these methods are not new to
finally specific irrigation index value is produced for each agriculture and have been applied over last three decades,
site. A prominent example is VRI (Variable Rate Irrigation) their precise use with real results has been witnessed only
optimization by CropMetrics [37], which works according with IoT integration [52, 53]. Based on recent outcomes,
to topography or soil variability, ultimately improves the fertigation is considered as the best management practice to
water use efficiency. improve the effectiveness of many agriculture matters; most
5 VOLUME XX, 2019
importantly, it can be integrated with IoT-based smart environment, ultimately causing significant contamination
farming infrastructure seamlessly. to entire ecosystems [58-59].
Recent IoT based intelligent devices, such as wireless
sensors, robots and drones are allowing the growers to slash
Inputs Processes Outputs pesticide uses significantly by precisely spotting crop
enemies. Compared to traditional calendar or prescription
based pest control procedures, modern IoT-based pest
management provides real-time monitoring, modeling,
disease forecasting, hence proving more effective [60, 61].
Generally, the reliability of crop disease monitoring and
pest management depends on three aspects: sensing,
evaluating, and treatment. The advanced disease and pest
recognition approaches are based on image processing in
which raw images are acquired throughout the crop area
using field sensors, UAVs, or remote sensing satellites.
Usually, remote sensing imagery covers large areas and,
hence, offers higher efficiency with lower cost. On the
other hand, field sensors are capable to support more
functions in collecting data, like environment sampling,
plant health, and pest situations, in every corner throughout
the crop cycle. For example, IoT-based automated traps
[62, 63] can capture, count, and even characterize insect
types, further uploading data to the Cloud for detailed
analysis, which is not possible through remote sensing.
Approaches like vehicle precise spray and automatic VRT
chemigation [64], commonly used under smart fertilization,
can also be utilized for disease treatment and other pesticide
applications. Moreover, the advancement of robotic
technology offers new solutions. When equipping an
agricultural robot with multispectral sensing devices and
precision spraying nozzles, it can locate and deal with pest
problems more precisely under the manipulation of a
remote IoT disease management system. This IoT-based
pest management system has many advantages, as it can
reduce the overall expenditures while, at the same time,
support the restoration of the natural climate. For example,
recently, it has been found that yields of many crop types
FIGURE 4: Some key inputs, processes involved and possible outputs
of smart farming are facing severe threat due to the lack of pollination [65,
66]. In fact, the pollination is being affected due to bee
D. CROP DISEASE AND PEST MANAGEMENT colony collapse disorder resulting from the uncontrolled
The Great Famine, also known as the Irish Potato Famine, pesticides.
in which approximately one million Irish people died
around 1950, resulted due to crop failure and yield E. YIELD MONITORING, FORECASTING, AND
reduction caused by ―potato blight‖ disease [54]. Even HARVESTING
today, corn growers in the US and southern Canada are Yield monitoring is the mechanism used to analyze various
facing an economic loss of approximately one billion USD aspects corresponding to agricultural yield, like grain mass
due to ―southern corn leaf blight‖ disease [55]. The Food flow, moisture content, and harvested grain quantity. It
and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 20–40% helps to accurately assess by recording the crop yield and
of global crop yields are lost annually due to pests and moisture level to estimate, how well the crop performed
diseases [56]. To control such vast production losses, and what to do next. Yield monitoring is considered an
pesticides and other agrochemicals became an important essential part of precision farming not only at the time of
component of the agriculture industry during the last harvest but even before that, as monitoring the yield quality
century. It is estimated that, in each year, around half a plays a crucial role. Yield quality depends on many factors,
million tons of pesticide are used in the US alone, while e.g. sufficient pollination with good quality pollen
more than two-million tons are used globally [57]. Most of especially when predicting seed yields under changing
these pesticides are harmful to human and animal health, environmental conditions [67-69]. Currently, when we are
leaving severe, even irreversible, impact to the dealing with more open markets, buyers around the world
become more particular about fruit quality; hence, effective
VOLUME XX, 2019 6
production depends on the right fruit size to the right depth images are used in [73] to track the different fruit
market at the right time [13]. conditions in mango farms. Similarly, multiple optical
Crop forecasting is an art to predict the yield and sensors are used in [74] to monitor the shrinking of
production (tons/ha) before the harvest takes place. This papayas, especially during drying conditions.
forecasting helps the farmer for near-future planning and
decision making. Furthermore, analyzing the yield quality III. ADVANCED AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES
and its maturity is another critical factor which enables the Adopting the novel methods to enhance the quality and
determination of the right time for harvesting. This quantity of food is not something new, as humans have
monitoring covers various development stages and uses been doing this for centuries. Initially, we tried to enhance
fruit conditions like its color, size, etc., for this purpose. the crop production by focusing on seed variety, fertilizers,
Predicting the right harvesting time not only helps to and pesticides. Soon it was realized that these conventional
maximize the crop quality and production but also provides ways were not adequate enough to fit this demand gap;
an opportunity to adjust the management strategy. hence, agriculture scientists have begun thinking of other
Although, harvesting is the last stage of this process, proper alternatives, like bioengineered (BE) foods. BE foods, also
scheduling can make a clear difference. To obtain the real known as genetically modified (GM) or genetically
benefits from crops, farmers need to know when these engineered (GE) foods, are foods produced by introducing
crops are actually ready to harvest. Figure 5 represents a changes into their DNA using the methods of genetic
snapshot of a farm area network (FAN) that can portrait the engineering. However, several studies highlight their
whole farm to the farmer in real time. serious effects on human health, including infertility,
disruption in immune system, accelerated aging, faulty
insulin regulations, etc. [75, 76]. All these and many other
Gateway
Experts and similar technologies did not receive much popularity and
Global Services acceptance in society because people prefer bio and organic
Bug Sensor Twig Sensor food. In this regards, massive research has been conducted
Leaf Sensor
for decades in which sensors and IoT-based technologies
are helping to improve conventional agriculture processes
Environmental to enhance yield production without, or with minimum,
Sensor
effect on its originality. For this purpose, new sophisticated
and more controlled environments are projected to tackle
the above-mentioned issues. The importance and
Soil Sensor involvement of new technologies is more critical, as we are
moving toward more cultured and urban farming. In fact, it
Root Sensor would not be incorrect for one to say that the success of
these advanced practices is in doubt without using sensor-
based technologies.
FIGURE 5: An IoT based Farm Area Network (FAN) A. GREENHOUSE FARMING

Greenhouse farming is considered the oldest method of
A yield monitor, developed in [70], can be installed on any
smart farming. Although, the idea of growing plants in
harvester combine and linked with the mobile app controlled environment is not new as found since Roman
FarmRTX, which displays live harvest data and uploads it times but it gained popularity in 19th century where largest
automatically to the manufacturer's web-based platform. greenhouses were built in France, Netherlands and Italy.
This app has the ability to generate high-quality yield maps Further, the practice was accelerated in the mid-20th
and share these maps with an agronomist, and the farmer
century and highly promoted in countries that facing harsh
also has the option to export to other farm management weather conditions [77]. Crops grown indoors are very less
software to analyze them. To estimate the production and affected by environment; most importantly, they are not
quality of yield precisely, the measurement of fruit growth limited to receiving light only during the daytime. As a
can be highly beneficial. This idea is used in [71], where result, the crops that traditionally could only be grown
authors considered the fruit growth as the most basic and under suitable conditions or in certain parts of the world are
relevant parameter to estimate that how well the crop is
now being growing anytime and anywhere. This was the
progressing. Satellite images can be a good option to actual time in which sensors and communication devices
monitor the yield of crops with vast areas. This method is started to support various agriculture applications
utilized in [72], where authors used Sentinel-1A genuinely.
Interferometric images to map the rice crop yield and The success and production of various crops under such
intensity in Myanmar. As we mentioned earlier in this
controlled environment depend on many factors, like
section, fruit size always plays a critical role to estimate its
accuracy of monitoring parameters, structure of shed,
maturation, making decisions regarding harvesting, and covering material to control wind effects, ventilation
targeting the right market, for this purpose, color (RGB) system, decision support system, etc. A detailed analysis is
7 VOLUME XX, 2019
provided in [78], where all these factors, their impacts, and containers and sensors and their integration for various VF
how wireless sensors can help for all this are considered. applications.
Precise monitoring of environment parameters is the most
critical task in modern greenhouses, where several C. HYDROPONIC
measurement points of various parameters are required to In order to enhance the benefits of greenhouse farming,
control and ensure the local climate. In [79], an IoT-based agriculture experts moved forward another step and
prototype is proposed to monitor the greenhouses where provided the idea of hydroponic, a subset of hydroculture in
MicaZ nodes are used to measure the inside parameters like which plants are grown without soil. Hydroponic is based
humidity, temperature, light, and pressure. on an irrigation system in which balanced nutrients are
dissolved in water and crop roots stay in that solution; in
B. VERTICAL FARMING some cases, roots can be supported by medium like perlite
The world needs more farmable lands to fulfill increased or gravel. When combining hydroponics with VF, a farm of
food demands, but reality is that one-third arable land was 100 sq. meters can produce the crop equivalent to 1 acre of
lost during the last four decades due to erosion and traditional farm, most importantly upto 95% less water and
pollution [80, 81]. Unfortunately, current agricultural fertilizers utilization and without pesticides/herbicides [87].
practices based on industrial farming are damaging the soil Currently, available systems and sensors e.g. [88, 89] are
quality far faster than nature can rebuild it. Overall, it is not only used to monitor a range of parameters and take
estimated that erosion rates from cultivated fields is 10 to readings at predefined intervals but, also, the measurements
40 times greater than the soil formation rates [82]. are stored so that can be used to analyze and diagnostic
Considering the reduction of arable land issues, it could be purpose later on.
a disaster for food production in the near future with current Under this application, the precision of nutrient
agriculture practices. Further, as we mentioned, 70% of measurements is crucial, as such, a highly reliable wireless
fresh water is only used for agriculture purpose, which can control system for tomato hydroponics is proposed in [90]
increase the burden on existing limited water reservoirs. in which they focused on various communication standards
Vertical Farming (VF) is an answer to meet the challenges that are least effected by plants‘ presence and their growth.
of land and water shortages. The monitoring of solution contents and their precision is
VF in the form of urban agriculture offers an opportunity to most critical under this method; for this purpose, many
stack the plants in a more controlled environment resulting systems are offered to check the presence of contents
in, most importantly, significant reduction in resource considering the plant demands. In [91] a wireless-sensor-
consumption. By following this method, we can increase based prototype is proposed to deliver a turn-key solution
the production multiple times, as only a fraction of ground for the hydroponic cultivation which offers real-time
surface is required (depending on the number of stacks) as measurements for soilless indoor growing. Further, a
compared to traditional agriculture practices. Not only for compact sensor module is presented in [92], which uses
ground surface, this system is highly efficient in terms of oscillator circuits to measure the presence and
other resources, as well. For example, according to Mirai, a concentrations of various nutrients and water levels.
Japan based indoor farm developer presented the figures
regarding a Japanese farm comprised of 25,000 square D. PHENOTYPING
meters. The figures are highly encouraging, as it is The previously discussed smart methods look more
producing 10,000 heads of lettuce per day (double the promising for the future of agriculture, as they are already
production when compared with traditional methods) and being used to produce different crop products under precise
is, most importantly, consuming 40% less energy and up to environments. Other than these, a few advanced techniques
99% reduced water consumption compared to outdoor are under experiment to further enhance the crop
fields [83]. Aerofarms, a leader in VF, growing agricultural capabilities by controlling their limitations with the help of
products with upto 390 times higher yields while utilizing advanced sensing and communication technologies. Among
95% less water at Newark [84]. these methods, the more prominent is phenotyping, which
Under this farming method, many parameters are important, is based on emerging crop engineering, which links plant
but CO2 measurements are most critical; hence, non- genomics with its ecophysiology and agronomy, as shows
dispersive infrared (NDIR) CO2 sensors play a critical role in Figure 6. The progress in molecular and genetic tools for
to track and control the conditions in vertical farms. Boxed various crop breeding was significant in the last decade.
Gascard, developed by Edinburgh Sensors [85], is However, a quantitative analysis of the crop behavior, e.g.
especially designed by considering such an environment, grain weight, pathogen resistance, etc., was limited due to
which employs a pseudo dual beam NDIR measurement the lack of efficient techniques and technologies that we
system to enhance the stability and reduced optical can now enjoy.
complexity. Human hands are not required to touch the Research investigations, completed in [93], conclude that
crops at any stage when following the IoT-connected plant phenotyping can be highly beneficial to investigate
vertical farm; this is the claim made by Mint Controls [86] the quantitative characteristics, such as those are
developers who offer a wide range of solutions, like waste responsible for its growth, yield quality and quantity, and
VOLUME XX, 2019 8
resistance capabilities to handle various stresses. Similarly, boost the profits. Accordingly, every aspect of agriculture
the role of sensing technologies and image-based that can be automated, digitally planned, and managed will
phenotyping are highlighted in [94] and describes how benefit from IoT technologies and solutions. Based on this
these solutions can help to boost the progress not only for fact, efforts are being focused to offer more sophisticated
screening numerous biostimulants but also their role in tools such as agricultural robots to perform a range of
understanding the mode of actions. Furthermore, an IoT- activities, like planting, watering, weeding, picking,
based phenotyping platform, CropQuant, is designed to thinning, fertilizing, spraying, packing and transporting.
monitor the crop and relevant trait measurements that can This revolution is being driven not only due to the
provide facility for crop breeding and digital agriculture advancement of technology, but is also a result of factors
[95]. Here, an automatic in-field control system was like fear of losing the low-cost labor, most importantly need
developed to process the data generated by platform. The for better and cheaper food.
provided trait analyses algorithms and machine-learning Based on these facts, during the period of 2017 to 2022, the
modeling help to explore the relation among the genotypes, global smart farming market is predicted to rise at a growth
phenotypes, and environment where it grows. rate of 19.3% per year to touch $23.14 billion in 2022 [97].
Here it is worth mentioning that UAV/drones are
generating and further expected to generate the highest
revenue amongst all agricultural robots utilized in smart
farming (UAVs are discussed in Section V). Evergreen
demand for higher crop yield, increased incorporation of
information and communication technology (ICT) in
farming and the rapid global climatic changes are some of
the major drivers resulting to such high market growth.
Manufacturers in the market offer a variety of products and
solutions, mostly based on sensors and efficient
communication for a range of applications; a few are shown
FIGURE 6: The Process of Phenotyping [96] in figure 7. The key technologies and equipment's that are
currently available for this purpose are discussed in
IV. MAJOR EQUIPMENT AND TECHNOLOGIES following.
Different from ancient farming, most of the tasks in
modern, large-scale agriculture are being done by heavy
and urbane equipment, such as tractors, harvesters, and
other robots which are fully or partially supported by
remote sensing and other communication technologies. In
precision agriculture, when tasks like sowing, fertilizing,
irrigation, and harvesting are being performed, the
operating vehicles are equipped with GPS and GIS facilities
so that they can work precisely, site-specifically, and
autonomously. In fact, the idea of site-specific crop
Arable Capture Predict
management is not possible without involving the recent
advanced technologies. The success of precision agriculture
is based on the accuracy of collected data, which is usually
done in two ways [10]. The first entails the usage of
multifunctional imaginary devices equipped with remote
sensing platforms, such as satellites, agriculture airplanes,
balloons, and UAVs; the second is from various types of
sensors—those that are mostly deployed for specific
purpose across various sites of our interest. The gathered
data is identified with the precise location information by
using GPS devices so that the site-specific treatment can be FIGURE 7: Selected IoT based products and prototypes for smart
provided afterwards. agriculture
Agriculture has transformed during the last few decades
from small/medium farming operations to highly A. WIRELESS SENSORS
industrialized and commercial farming. This transition Among all the equipment for smart farming currently
allows the leading corporations to treat agriculture like available in the market, wireless sensors are the most
other industries, e.g., manufacturing where the crucial and play a key role when it comes to collecting the
measurements, data, and control are very important to crop conditions and other information. Wireless sensors are
provide a balance between costs and production in order to being used standalone wherever required, further integrated
9 VOLUME XX, 2019
with almost every portion of advanced agricultural tools 5) OPTOELECTRONIC SENSORS

and heavy machinery, depending on application Optoelectronic sensors can differentiate plant type; hence,
requirements. In the following, major sensor types are they help to detect weeds, herbicides, and other unwanted
discussed according to their working procedure and purpose plants, especially in wide-row crops [111]. When
and the benefits they offer. combining, an optoelectronic sensor and location
1) ACOUSTIC SENSORS
information, it can map the weed distribution and resolution
Acoustic sensors offer a miscellaneous appliance in farm [112]. Optoelectronic sensors are also capable of
management, including soil cultivation, weeding, fruit differentiating between vegetation and soil from their
harvesting, etc.; the main benefit of this technology is its reflection spectra.
low-cost solutions with fast response, especially when 6) AIRFLOW SENSORS
considering portable equipment. It functions by measuring These sensors are capable of measuring soil air
the change in the noise level as the tool interacts with other permeability and percentage of moisture and identifying
materials, e.g., soil particles [98]. Acoustic sensors are soil structure to distinguish different types of soils.
commonly used for pest monitoring and detection [99] and Measurements can be made at singular locations or
classifying the seed varieties according to their sound dynamically while in motion, e.g., can be used on a fixed
absorption spectra [100]. position or in mobile mode. The desired output is the
2) FIELD-PROGRAMMABLE GATE ARRAY (FPGA)-
pressure required to push a predetermined amount of air
BASED SENSORS into the ground at a prescribed depth. It follows the
FPGA based sensors are starting to be used in agriculture procedure of various soil properties, including compaction,
recently due to their flexibility of reconfiguration. The structure, and moisture levels, producing unique identifying
major options where these can be employed include signatures [113].
measuring real-time plant transpiration, irrigation, and 7) ELECTROCHEMICAL SENSORS
humidity [101, 102]. However, their utilization in These are mostly used to assess the significant soil
agriculture is in the early stages due to their limitations, characteristics to analyze the soil nutrient levels, such as pH
such as size, cost, and power consumption. These sensors [114]. The standard chemical soil analysis, which are
require more power; hence, they are not suitable for mostly expensive and time consuming, can be easily
continuous monitoring, further high in cost even substituted with these sensors. To be more precise, the
compromising on performance [103]. By overcoming these macro and micro nutrients in the soil, salinity and pH [115],
issues, FPGA-based sensors can offer satisfactory solutions are measured using sensors of this nature.
according to specific application requirements.
8) ELECTROMAGNETIC SENSORS
3) OPTICAL SENSORS Electromagnetic sensors are used to record electrical
These sensors use light reflectance phenomena and help to conductivity and transient electromagnetic response,
measure soil organic substances, soil moisture and color, identify electrical response, and adjust variable rate
presence of minerals and their composition, clay content, applications in the actual situation. Sensors based on this
etc. [104, 105]. These sensors test the soil‘s ability to reflect technology use electric circuits to measure the capability of
light based on different parts of the electromagnetic soil particles to conduct or accumulate electrical charge,
spectrum. The changes occurred in wave reflections help to which is mostly done by the following two methods:
indicate the changes in soil density and other parameters. contact or non-contact [116]. Residual nitrates and organic
Fluorescence-based optical sensors are used for basic plant matter in the soil can also be measured using the
assessment, especially to supervise the fruit maturation electromagnetic sensors, as done in [117].
[106]. Further, when integrating optical sensors with
9) MECHANICAL SENSORS
microwave scattering, it can be used for characterizing
Mechanical sensors assess the soil mechanical resistance
grove canopies, like olives and other similar crops [107].
(compaction) to indicate the variable level of compaction.
4) ULTRASONIC RANGING SENSORS The mechanical sensors enter or cut through the soil and
Sensors of this category are considered a good choice being record the force assessed by strain gauges or load cells
low cost, potential to operate in a variety of applications, [118]. A pressure unit is used to measure the soil‘s
and ease of use and adjustability, such as the sampling rate. mechanical resistance, which is actually the ratio of the
Common uses are tank monitoring, spray distance force needed to go into the soil medium using the frontal
measurement (e.g., boom height and width control in order part of the tool, actually engaged with the soil.
to perform uniform spray coverage, object detection, and
10) MASS FLOW SENSORS
collision avoidance), and monitoring crop canopy [108,
Category of this sensors are used for yield monitoring, as it
109]. When combined with a camera, these sensors can
provides the yield information by measuring the amount of
then be used for the weed detection [110], where the
grain flow, e.g., when passing through the combine
heights of plants are identified using the ultrasonic sensors
harvester. Sensing the mass flow of grain to determine the
and the camera determines the weed and crop coverage.
crop yield is not new, as it has been performed the last two
decades [119]. The mass flow sensor is the most critical
VOLUME XX, 2019 10
component, but, overall, the yield monitoring system data from fixed and mobile platforms worldwide [136].
consists of several other modules, like the grain moisture Moreover, automatic packet reporting system (APRS) is
sensor, data storage device, and an internal software to being integrated to report telemetry data through satellite
analyze the data, ,which are within the interface provided in communication [137].
the John Deere tractors [120]. Table I lists a few sensors to provide the idea about their
11) EDDY COVARIANCE-BASED SENSORS possible uses and the environment where they can be
This type of sensors can be used for quantifying exchanges placed.
TABLE I
of carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane or other gases, and SOME SELECTED SENSORS AND THEIR POSSIBLE USES IN IOT
energy between the surface of the earth and the atmosphere. BASED AGRICULTURE
This method offers an accurate way to measure surface-
atmosphere fluxes of energy and trace gas fluxes over a Sensor/ System Target/Placed Considered Purpose/Parameters
variety of ecosystems for, most importantly, agricultural
applications [121]. Currently, the sensors based on this
Location/Tracking
Fruit/ Stem Size

Pollution /Co2
technology are preferred over other similar options, like the
Equipment
Moisture
Weather
Water
Temp
close chamber, due to high precision and its ability to
Yield
Wind
Plant
Soil
measuring continuous flux over large areas [122].
12) SOFT WATER LEVEL-BASED (SWLB) SENSORS
SWLB sensors are being utilized in agriculture catchments
to characterize hydrological behaviors, such as water level Loup 8000i [138]   
and flow, at adjustable time-step acquisitions. This is done
by measuring rainfalls, stream flows, and other water XH-M214 [139]  
presence options [123, 124]. Ag Premium
    
Weather [140]
13) LIGHT DETECTION AND RANGING (LIDAR)
FI-MM [141]  
This technology is widely used in a range of agriculture
applications, such as land mapping and segmentation, PYCNO [142]     
determining soil type, farm 3D modelling, monitoring
MP406 [143]   
erosion and soil loss, and yield forecasting [125-127].
DEERE 2630
LiDAR is also commonly used to obtain dynamic [144]   
measurement information regarding fruit-tree leaf area, and, Sol Chip Com
when combined with GPS, it can produce a 3D map [128]. (SCC) [145]   
SenseH2TM
Moreover, this technology is often used when estimating [146]   
the biomass of various crops and trees [129].
DEX70 [147]  
14) TELEMATICS SENSORS
Piccolo ATX
Telematics sensors support telecommunication between two [148]  
places—more precisely, among two vehicles when
CI-340 [149]   
considering the agriculture-based applications. Telemetry
Wind Sentry
sensors are used to collect data from remote locations 03002 [150]  
(especially inaccessible points), operations of machines that
report on how the components are working, and record
AQM-65 [151]  
POGO Portable
location and travel routes to avoid visiting the same patch [152]    
[130]. These services enable farm managers to record and
store all information related to farm operations SF-4/5 [153]  
automatically, which maximizes the utilization of Met Station One
[154]  
environmental benefits, further can minimize threats like
farm equipment theft as utilized in [131, 132]. SD-6P [155]  
15) REMOTE SENSING B-102 [156]  
Sensors belong to this category are used to capture and
store the geographic information, further analyze,
YieldTrakk [157]    
manipulate, manage and present all types of spatial or
B. IOT BASED TRACTORS
geographical data. Similar to LiDAR, these sensors also
As rural labor resources have started to come under stress
found significant use in agriculture applications including
due to the expansion of the crop industry, tractors and other
crop assessment, forecasting yield dates, yield modelling
automatic heavy machinery started to enter the agriculture
and forecasting, identification of plants and pests, land
sector. Where available, an average size tractor can work 40
cover and degradation mapping etc [133-135]. Argos sensor
times faster with significantly less expenses than traditional
is one of leading example, a satellite-based sensor system
farm labor [158]. To fulfill the continuously increasing
used to collect, process and disseminates environmental
demands, agricultural-based equipment manufacturers, like
11 VOLUME XX, 2019
John Deere, Hello Tractors, Case IH and CNH (New C. HARVESTING ROBOTS
Holland), have started to provide better solutions focusing Harvesting is the most critical stage during the production
on the grower‘s requirements. With the advancement of process, as this last phase dictates the crop‘s output and,
technology, most of these manufacturers are offering ultimately, its success. In some crops, this is done a single
tractors with automatic-driven and even Cloud-computing time while, in some others, performed several times, even
capabilities. This technology is not new, as self-driving on a daily basis, as crop reaches a certain stage. Harvesting
tractors have been in the market even before semi- the crop at the right time is very critical, as doing so either
autonomous cars. One of the main advantages of self- early or late can affect the production significantly. When
driving tractors is their ability to avoid revisiting the same talking about the labor, it is estimated that the US faces a
area or row by reducing the overlap even less than an inch. $3.1 billion decline in crop production on a yearly basis due
In addition, they can make very precise turns without a to labor shortage [165]. Not only this, but, according to a
driver‘s physical presence. This facility offers better study conducted by the United States Department of
precision with reduced errors, especially when spraying Agriculture, overall 14 % of farm costs go to wages and
insecticide or targeting weeds; those are mostly labor costs, while it can be upto 39% in some labor
unavoidable when a human controls the machinery. intensive farms [166]. Considering the worth of this stage
Although, at the moment, no fully autonomous tractor is and labor issues, farm experts expect that involvement of
available in market, many researchers and manufactures are agriculture robotics may not only ease the labor pressure
hardly working to mature the technology. Based on current but also provide the flexibility to harvest whenever needed.
progress and future demands of high-tech tractors, it is In order to automate the harvesting process and make it
predicated that around 700,000 tractors equipped with more precise, the role of robots has been increasing over the
facilities like autosteer or tractor guidance will be sold in recent decades. Considering the robot services, many
2028 [159], while the same study expects that around researchers have done intensive research in order to mature
40,000 unmanned, fully-autonomous (level 5) tractors will the sensitivity of fruit detection, its shape, size, color, and
be sold in 2038 [160]. localization [167-170]. Automatic harvesting of fruits
When talking about such cultured machines, most farmers requires deep investigation of sophisticated sensors that are
can‘t afford to own them while most of the tractor service capable of collecting precise and unambiguous information
providers and manufacturers operate well below their of that particular crop and fruit. The task of detecting the
potential. Considering the challenge, Hello Tractor has right target in natural scenes is not simple since most of the
developed a solution to sort these issues. The company has fruits are occluded partially—sometimes even fully—under
developed a low-cost monitoring device that can be placed the leaves and branches or are overlapped with other fruits
on any tractor, provides powerful software and analytics [171]. Here, most of the prominent studies found in regard
tools [161]. The benefits of this device are twofold- on one to this purpose are deeply based on computer vision, image
side it ensures that overall cost of tractor remains affordable processing, and machine learning techniques. This process
for the most of growers while at the same time it monitors needs very specialized and sophisticated tools to
the condition of the tractor and reports if any problems differentiate the fruit conditions, as there are more than
occur. The software connects tractor‘s owner to farmers in sixty shapes, sizes, and colors for a pepper alone when it is
need of tractor services, just like Uber for tractors. Another ready to harvest. Considering such complexity, many robots
major example is Case IH‘s Magnum series [162] tractor are being developed for specific crops. Some of the leading
which uses on board video cameras and LiDAR sensors for robots being used for crop harvesting include SW 6010
object detection and collision avoidance. Recently, Case IH [172] and Octinion [173] for strawberries, SWEEPER robot
used this tractor to plant soybeans by following the concept [174] for peppers, and FFRobot [175] for tree-based fruits
of autonomous tractors. In another development made by like apples which can pick up to 10,000 fruits per hour.
standards group ETSI where world's first tractor connected Strawberries are one of the most consumed fruits, available
to a car in France, using IoT [163] to control the accidents mostly throughout the year while labor is the major
due to farm vehicles. contributor to the high cost of this fruit, especially during
After collecting all the important crop data, the next step is harvesting and packaging stages [176]. As the strawberry
pushing computing from the Cloud to the edge, as John farms are grown mostly under greenhouse systems hence
Deere [164] wants. In their proposed system, an analytics the harvesting robots are designed to move on defined paths
engine works locally on the farmer‘s tractor rather than in like rails where the translational motion is restricted and
the Cloud in order to adjust the local inputs. For this robots can move backward and forward only. Robots
purpose, they considered all the existing analytics and developed by Agrobot are able to collect strawberries along
recommendations to modify the current data in real time the side of strawberry plant rows in the field, further packed
depending on the field conditions. Based on this by human operators [177]. For example, SW6010 by
phenomenon, the manufacturer is bringing their tractors to Agrobot is a specialized and semi-automatic robot towards
next level by connecting their machine to the Internet and the specific task of strawberry harvesting [178]. Tektu T-
creating a method to display the information wherever 100 is an all-electric rechargeable strawberry harvester run
farmer wants to see it. silently with zero emission inside the poly-tunnels [179].
The installed pickers are able to position over the crop rows
VOLUME XX, 2019 12
and gather the fruit quickly and efficiently, directly into forwarded to the FMS, which gathers and analyses the
punnets. information about all the activities happening at different
parts even the historical data regarding the weather and
D. COMMUNICATION IN AGRICULTURE climate updates, economic, products being used and their
Communication and reporting the information on a timely specifications etc, in short making it decision farming. It is
basis are considered the backbone of precision agriculture. important to mention that, the communication technology
The real purpose cannot be achieved unless a firm, reliable, has its own worth but the FMS also plays a critical role
and secure connection among various participating objects which must be custom designed considering the specific
is provided. To achieve communication reliability, telecom application requirements. Generally, based on
operators can play a crucial role in the agricultural sector. If communication data rates and power consumption, wireless
we truly want to implement IoT on a large scale in the sensors for agriculture applications are divided in three
agriculture industry, we have to provide a suitably large broad categories as shown in table II.
architecture. Here, the factors like cost, coverage, energy
consumption, and reliability are critical and have to be TABLE II
DATA AND POWER SPECIFICATIONS OF WIRELESS SENSORS
considered before choosing the mean of communication. COMMONLY USED FOR AGRICULTURE APPLICATIONS
Low-energy networks can provide connectivity only on one Power
site and mostly do not offer services in remote areas where Communication/ Expected consumption
Possible application
Data type Data size (active
sensed data need to be transmitted to the farm management mode)
system (FMS). Depending on availability, scalability and (1) Air temperature/
application requirements, various communication modes humidity/ direction /
speed (2) Soil
and technologies are being used for this purpose, most Small sized data temperature/ humidity
Less than a
common are discussed here, 100s of mA
and low power (3) Leaf
bytes (Fractions of
consumption thickness/color
1). CELLULAR COMMUNICATION mA)
(chlorophyll) (4)
Cellular communication modes from 2G to 4G can be Trunk thickness/flux
suitable, depending on the purpose and bandwidth flow (5) Fruit size
Medium sized (1) Still picture camera
requirement; however, the reliability, and even availability, data and (2) Multi or hyper 10s of
of a cellular network in rural areas is a major concern. To 10s of mA
medium power spectral camera (3) Mb
tackle this, data transmission via satellite is another option, consumption Acoustic sensors
Large sized data 10s of
but, here, the cost of this communication mode is very high, Video streaming
Mb per 50 A
and large power
which makes it not suitable for small- and medium-sized cameras
consumption minute
farms. The choice of communication mode also depends on
application requirements, such as some farms required 2). ZIGBEE
sensors that can operate with low data rate but need to work Zigbee is primarily designed for a wide range of
for long periods hence demand long battery life. For such applications especially to replace existing non-standard
technologies. Depending on the application requirements,
scenarios, a new range of Low Power Wide Area Network
the devices based on this protocol can be one of three types
(LPWAN) is considered a better solution for cellular
including Coordinator, Router and End User. Further, three
connectivity, not only in terms of long battery life but also a different topologies are supported by Zigbee networks
larger connectivity range with affordable rates (2 to 15 named, Start, Cluster Tree and Mesh [34]. Based on these
USD per year) [180]. Currently, crop and pasture characteristics, and further considering the agriculture
management are two of the main applications where application requirements, Zigbee can play vital role
LPWAN networks are highly suitable, and, further especially targeting the greenhouse environment where
considering its success, it can be utilized in many other usually short range communications are required. During
farming-related uses. monitoring the various parameters, the real time data from
Besides WAN connectivity option, many short range and the sensor node is transferred through Zigbee to end server.
medium level communications are being used in mesh For the applications like, irrigation and fertilization, Zigbee
networks [181]. For example, a mesh-network of sensor modules are networked for communication, e.g. in drip
nodes collects data and transmits it to the gateway which is irrigation used to monitor soil contents like moisture.
Further, SMS is forwarded to the farmer to update about the
located somewhere in the same area. The gateway further
field data where GSM is required at long distance or
sends this data to the farm management system using the Bluetooth module can help at the shorter distances.
WAN network. The communication technologies used
3). BLUETOOTH
within the mesh networks vary e.g. Bluetooth and Zigbee
Bluetooth is a wireless communication standard that
can be used to provide connectivity for peer-to-peer
connects small-head devices together over shorter distances
wireless communications. From here, the sensed data usually cooperating in a close proximity. Due to its
13 VOLUME XX, 2019
advantages of low power requirements, easy to use and low very narrow chunks of spectrum and changes the phase of
cost, this technology is being utilized in many smart the carrier radio wave to encode the data. Based on these
farming applications. Further, Bluetooth making characteristics, it offers high level performance, even if 100
advancements in many IoT systems with the release of sensors need to transmit data at the same time, as
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) or commonly known as experiments done in [189].
Bluetooth Smart. The study conducted in [182] which tests Figure 8 gives an idea that how end-to-end communication
Bluetooth and PLC (programmable logic controller) with possibilities can be divided in various layers to interact with
ICS (integrated control strategy), timer control and soil each other in order to provide the services for smart
moisture control approach for smart irrigation. The target of agriculture.
this study is to find an optimum utilization of water and Bridge
energy consumption for various greenhouse or field End Layer Backbone Layer Sensing Layer
Layer
applications. A moisture and temperature sensor based on Environment
BLE is developed in [183] especially focusing on the SCADA UAV
Sensor
agriculture environments and weather conditions of crop System
fields. Here the reason of choosing BLE for communication
purpose is due to its inherent support for smart phone
accessibility. Further, a similar effort is done in [184] where Databases Base station
Crop Sensor
a new sensor node is designed to monitor ambient light and
temperature employing BLE communication protocol
preferable for IoT based agriculture applications. Other
than short range, WiFi is utilized whenever LAN End Users GSM /Wimax/ Satellite Soil Sensor
communications are required in smart agriculture. Along
short range connectivity, WiFi is utilized whenever LAN
communications are required in smart agriculture. Study
presented in [185] investigates a remote monitoring system
using WiFi, where the sensor nodes were based on
WSN802G modules. The deployed nodes communicate
wirelessly with a central server, which is responsible to FIGURE 8: End to End Communication for Smart Farming
collect and store the monitored data and further allow
displaying the information after required analysis. E. SMARTPHONES
Despite its availability concerns for remote fields, cellular
4). LORA
LoRa wireless technology is a long-range, low-power communication is the major technology in rural areas;
platform used extensively in IoT applications. Being low in mobile phones are a very common source and primary
power consumption, it offers LPWAN connectivity mode of communication whenever the need arises to
between the wireless sensors and the Cloud. It has proved contact or update most of the farming community. Recent
itself much more effective and reliable than Bluetooth, Wi- advancements in the smartphone industry have resulted in
Fi, etc. especially in restaurants or kitchen environments. sharp price decreases, making this industry more attractive,
Sensors based on LoRa can be installed in smaller devices especially to the smallholder growers in remote areas. The
for reliable monitoring. Most importantly, LoRa signals can rapid spread of cellular networks in developing countries
penetrate thick and insulated objects, even buildings, and offers the opportunity to reach remote and dispersed farms
can, hence, cover a larger network area. with improved services. Mobile-phone-based agriculture
Overall, LoRa-based networks perform higher in terms of services (m-services) are far from their assumed potential;
lifespan and, at the same time, pose reduced maintenance
according to an analysis done by GSM Association, only at
and upkeep burden [186]. Considering the advantages,
8 per cent [190]. However, the flexibility and functionality,
many researchers tested this communication method in
kitchens, storage rooms, and transport systems. In [187], a such as the camera, GPS, microphone accelerometer,
test was conducted in a warehouse with a capacity to store proximity, and gyroscope, attract the IT experts, and they
40 tons of apples, and results show that it provided full are developing more appealing mobile apps that consider
coverage, where the temperature and airflow readings the farmer‘s various needs [191, 192]. The conclusion of
transferred successfully with a packet rate of more the 96%. FAO's 10-year investigations states that ―solid information
Similarly, [188] presents a system to achieve information is needed regarding the impact of previous initiatives,
traceability in the grain transport system to ensure the food including lessons learned, in order to inform the design and
quality by monitoring the temperature and humidity levels. approach of future efforts‖ [193]. Interestingly, the
5). SIGFOX smartphone is the first device that comes to mind when
Sigfox is also used to provide network connectivity services planning how to achieve this goal, especially considering
to low-powered objects as "things" required. It is based on
the often dispersed and poorly serviced areas.
narrowband or ultra-narrowband technology; hence, it takes
VOLUME XX, 2019 14
Recent years have seen rapid expansion of research, with Obviously, the most important factor for such applications
researchers conducting a growing number of studies and is that the farmer should access and use them. In other
developing various models to highlight the scope of words, an easy-to-use, free or low-cost app that supports
smartphone crop applications. These researchers mostly various languages could attract the farmer's attention. In
belong to developing nations, as proposed systems are addition, developers should study and consider the relevant
based primarily in countries like Kenya [194, 195], Ghana factors before making their suggestions. For example,
[196, 197], Nigeria [198, 199], Mali [200], Uganda [201], market prices are of great interest to farmers, but would be
and Zimbabwe [202, 203]. Although, the scope of of no use in cases of bad roads and unavailability of proper
smartphone utilization in agriculture has been more transport vehicles. The developers should target the
commonly observed in Africa, experiments in countries like problems of the wider community instead of focusing only
Cameroon [204], China [205, 206], Turkey [207, 208], and on farmers, considering the transporters, brokers, and other
India [209, 210] are also increasing. Analysing the success agriculture experts as well. Unfortunately, most of the
of m-services depends on many factors. One of the most applications are developed on growers‘ perceptions, instead
comprehensive studies regarding the use of mobile phones of using independent and verified market data. For this
for various agriculture applications was conducted to purpose, the developer should not only focus on the data
review all the important factors [211]. This study concludes retrieved by independent investigators but also assess it
that the service will be of no effect if the developer of the under various usage patterns covering longer durations.
application does not truly understand the farmer needs. Table III lists smartphone based sensors that are attracting
TABLE III the researchers to utilize them for various agriculture
SMARTPHONE BASED SENSORS THAT BEING USED IN VARIOUS purposes. While, last column provide some of the
AGRICULTURE APPLICATIONS references where these sensors have been used. Further,
Table IV includes some of the important mobile apps
Smartphone
developed for various agriculture applications along their

Agriculture
Literature
Sensor(s)
Common
features and achievements.

Purpose
Used In
uses
F. CLOUD COMPUTING
Disease detection, Precision agriculture is showing its potential and benefits
Chlorophyll status, by improving agricultural operations through better data-
Fruit ripeness , Leaf driven decision making. However, to continue this success,
Image Sensors Take pictures of any [212-
Area Index (LAI),
(Camera) object, focuses lens 217] precision agriculture not only requires better technology
Harvest Readiness,
Soil erosion and and tools to process data efficiently but also at a reasonable
other analysis cost such that the received data can be used to make field
Location decisions efficiently. For this purpose, farmers can use
information is
Provides location, attached to generate Cloud services to access information from predictive
measuring the latitude alerts. Mostly used [218- analysis institutes so that they can choose the right product
GPS
and longitude of for machine driving 220] available according to their specific requirements. Cloud
device. and tracking, land computing offers an edge to farmers to use knowledge-
management, crop
mapping based repositories that contain a treasure of information and
Machine experiences related to farming practices as well as on
Detects usual/ unusual
Microphone sound and convert to
maintenance, bug [221, equipment options available in the market with the
detection, to make 222] necessary details. In most cases, all this comes along with
electrical signals
audio queries.
Measures acceleration Precise movement
expert advice from a wide range of sources (for example,
forces that used to or rotation of on farming and the processing of agricultural products). To
[223-
Accelerometer observe the tilting camera during use.
225]
make it more effective, the scenario can be extended further
motion and Detect worker or to include access to consumer databases, supply chains, and
orientation of object. machine activities
billing systems.
Senses the angular Equipment
[218, Surely, moving towards Cloud-based services offer
velocity to track the movement, canopy
Gyroscope 221, opportunities to explore advancements, but it comes with
object rotation or structure
226]
twist measurement new challenges, as well. First, a vast range of sensors are
Measures air pressure being developed and used in precision agriculture, each of
as an altimeter.
Mostly used in
Measures the which has its own data format and semantics. Secondly,
Barometer elevation height in [227] most of the decision-support systems are application-
correcting altitude
hilly agriculture.
measurements by the specific while, on the other hand, a farmer can be in the
GPS need of accessing various systems for a specific application,
Uses accelerometer Precise distance of
and gyro to determine plant, leave or any
e.g., soil monitoring. Considering both of these cases, the
[222, Cloud-based decision-support system not only needs to
Inertial Sensor the object altitude in other object is
226]
relation to the inertial measured from handle the diversity of data and their formats but also must
system camera. be able to configure these formats for different applications.
15 VOLUME XX, 2019
TABLE IV
SELECTED IMPORTANT SMARTPHONE APPLICATIONS FOR VARIOUS AGRICULTURE APPLICATIONS
Mobile Apps Application Features/Achievements

This app estimates leaf area index (LAI), a key factor to determine a plant‘s water requirements.
PocketLAI
Irrigation It uses the mobile camera and accelerometer sensor to acquire images at 57.5° below the canopy,
[224]
while the user keeps rotating the device along its main axis.
Land management has long-term potential depending on climate, topography and relatively static
LandPKS soil properties (like soil texture, depth, and mineralogy). This app helps to improve farmers‘
Soil Assessment
[228] understating of the land‘s potential, as well as climate change adaptation and mitigation
activities.
It provides information about the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of various
PETEFA
GIS crops at different stages of the lifecycle. Furthermore, it provides a geo-referenced soil analysis
[229]
organized by parcels.
Equipment costs are a major chunk of crop expenditures. This app is very helpful to estimate the
AMACA Machinery/ cost of machinery and its implementation in various field operations. A customer-driven quality
[230] Tools function deployment (QFD) approach is followed to link the user‘s expectations with the design
characteristics of the app.
Ecofert helps to manage fertilizer to achieve its optimum use. It calculates the best combination
Fertilizer
Ecofert [231] of fertilizers based on the required nutrient solution and considers the needs of various crops.
Management
Furthermore, it takes account the cost of fertilizer based on current market prices.
eFarm is a crowdsourcing and human sensing tool that collects geotagged agricultural land
eFarm [206] GIS information at the land parcel level. It is highly suitable for sensing, mapping, and modeling of
agriculture land system studies.
This app follows an evidence-based, site-specific approach to make crop and land management
AgriMaps Land
recommendations. It provides a platform for spatial data visualization with a greater range of
[232] Management
geo-spatial information compared to other, similar applications.
The SnapCard app was developed for in-field analysis of spray collectors based on imaging
SnapCard Spraying
analyses. It uses various mobile phone sensors and follows five imaging techniques to quantify
[233] Applications
droplet deposition and size.
The developer of this app targets dry land areas specifically, as irrigation issues are more
SWApp [234] Irrigation common in these areas. The app provides a robust, reliable and economic solution for monitoring
soil water moisture, and even takes into account the weather history.
This tool is capable of enhancing weed management for a specific paddock. Based on the
Weedsmart Weed
answers given for nine questions about a paddock‘s farming system, the app assesses herbicide
[235] Management
resistance and weed seed bank risk.
VillageTree offers intelligent pest management solutions by gathering pest incidence reports
VillageTree Pest
from farmers. It uses a crowdsourcing approach and sends the images along the location
[236] Management
information to alert other farmers that may be affected.
WISE is a cloud-based irrigation scheduling tool that uses the soil water balance method and
WISE [237] Irrigation allows users to quickly view their soil moisture deficit and weather measurements, as well as
enables users to input applied irrigation amounts.
This app supports the timber production and its natural regeneration management in agroforestry
Forestry
SafReg [238] systems. For this purpose, developers targeted 20 farms from Costa Rica, Nicaragua and
Management
Honduras. Overall, this app helps to save time and money on data processing.
EVAPO was developed to estimate the potential evapotranspuration (PET) in real time using the
EVAPO [239] Irrigation climate grid data from NASA-POWER. This app can be used for any location in the world to
improve irrigation efficiency via water conservation information.
Basically, this app presents a scoring system (SS) based on weather, disease pressure, and other
AgroDecisor factors those are useful to estimate the probability of expected net return on fungicide treatment.
Fungicide
EFC [240] Overall, it helps farmers to reduce the number of fungicide applications by providing scoring
levels for the proper application of fungicide.
This app helps monitor crop foliar status. It detects leaf damage, especially as a result of insects.
Health
BioLeaf [241] Based on imaging methods, two techniques (Otsu segmentation and Bezier curves) are used to
Monitoring
estimate the foliar loss in leaves with or without border damage.
The app calculates the amount of fertilizer and water needed for the major crop types based on
cFertigUAL
Fertigation various crop growing systems and the variety of fertigation technologies. Farmers can achieve
[242]
the precise application of water and other nutrients in greenhouse farming.
Based on idea of Picture-Based Insurance (PBI) which helps to improve the quality and
WheatCam affordability of crop insurance. Smartphone camera is used to take picture pre and post damaged
Crop Insurance
[243] insured areas. Overall, it minimizes the asymmetric information and costs of claims verification
compared to indemnity insurance methods.
VOLUME XX, 2019 16
An open Cloud-based system has been established by data for further processing and analysis. Furthermore,
AgJunction [244] which gathers and disseminates the data UAVs, better known as drones, fitted with high-resolution
on a form from different precise agriculture controllers, cameras and precise sensors, can be flown over thousands
leading to a decrease in costs and environmental impacts. of hectares of farms.
Furthermore, ―Akisai‖ Cloud [245], proposed by Fujitsu, The role of surveillance in all agriculture applications is
focuses on food and agricultural industries and incorporates highly critical, especially in forestry and crop monitoring
information communication technology for increasing the due to the need to cover large areas [247]. Therefore, a fast,
food supply in the coming years. low-cost, real-time, and large-scale surveillance supported
Similarly, SourceTrace developed and offering Cloud- with an accurate data acquisition and transmission facility
based mobile applications to provide visibility and relations is crucial for agriculture production. Currently, mostly two
between farms and markets, further tracking the value chain options are used to obtain aerial images of a field area:
at the source, e.g., 'eService Everywhere' [246]. An satellite and airplanes. Both of them are good for a macro
important note about their applications is that, during the view of a landscape, but they face serious issues in terms of
development, they considered the farms‘ remoteness and quality when it comes to micro views. These macro-view
low bandwidth environments. images are not good in resolution and cannot offer the
Figure 9 presents possible infrastructure and relationship image quality which is required during the analyses and
scenario of fluid computing including Edge, Mist and Fog decision making. Secondly, not only the resolution but
for smart agriculture visiting frequency also matters and, through both of these, it
is not simple to take and collect images frequently (on
Infrastructure Storage Security average, four times a month [248]). Another serous issue is
Services
that these operate above the cloud level where there is a
strong possibility that both are obstructed in bad weather.
When we talk about UAVs that provide an "eye in sky", we
can overcome— or even eliminate— the above mentioned
issues when we consider the micro views. The quality of
images taken through UAVs depends on the attached
camera‘s resolution—normally dozens of times better than
Cloud satellite images—and, most importantly, we can adjust
according to application requirements. More specifically,
UAVs supports faster and better NDVI to assess crop
conditions, like weed mapping, leaf assessments, etc., and
Fog provide immediate feedback so that farmers can take timely
actions. Similarly, UAVs are better in terms of frequency,
even if requires multiple times in a single day, and are also
Mist the option least affected by weather conditions, unless it is
raining. Due to the mentioned advantages, UAVs are
considered the future of precision agriculture, and this is the
reason they are generating the highest revenue amongst all
Edge agricultural robots developed for precision agriculture.
According to quoted figures by a report published by FAO
Agriculture IoTs in 2018, it is estimated that the agriculture drone-related
market to be worth USD 32.4 billion [249].
FIGURE 9: Fluid Computing Infrastructure for Smart Farming The current condition of the entire field is one of the most
valuable pieces of information to obtain in the precision
V. UAVs IN AGRICULTURE program. With the help of this collected data, a farmer can
Recently, the IoT has made remarkable progress in many spot problems early and rapidly; hence, appropriate
industries, including farming sectors like poultry, fishing, interventions can be applied. Agricultural drones represent
etc. but when we talk about agriculture, the communication a new way to collect field-level data; the results are on-
facilities like base stations or Wi-Fi are very limited, which demand whenever and wherever needed, as the drone can
prevents the growth of the IoT in this sector. Such be easily and quickly deployed. Most importantly, it is not
communication infrastructure and related facilities are even all about their hardware but the convenience, quality, and
worst in developing counties and rural areas, which is one utility they are offering, as the drone-enabled surveillance
of the major hurdles when introducing the IoT in the offers the real facility to have an idea of what is happening
agriculture industry. The data acquired through the wireless in the farm fields at that moment.
sensors cannot be transmitted in the absence of reliable The UAVs, used for agricultural applications usually fall
communication infrastructure. In such a scenario, UAVs into two categories: fixed-wing and multi-rotor drones
offer an alternative, as they visit and communicate with the [250] (figure 10). Although both are available in various
wireless sensors spread over large areas in order to harvest
17 VOLUME XX, 2019
ranges in terms of cost, payload capacity and mostly Due to their nature and flexibility, UAVs are being used in
distinguished based on hardware differences. For example, a range of agricultural applications, including crop health
when it is required to cover a large area, fixed-wing drones monitoring, planting, plant counting, spraying, agriculture
are suggested due to their long-range flight capacity, most photography, and many other variable rate applications.
importantly they are crash tolerant e.g senseFly's eBee SQ After being equipped with automation and GPS
[251] and DATAhawk [252]. On the other hand, multi-rotor capabilities, they are ready to take the agriculture sector to a
drones are more common due to their easy and faster set up further-modernized level. With every passing day, drones
as can take off and land vertically. Multi-rotors actually are becoming more inexpensive and reliable, hence, making
have many advantages over the fixed wings as they are themselves an ideal choice for new farming applications.
easier to operate, require no advance wind planning and Focusing on the success of this technology, SAP (Systems,
have the ability to fly more precisely. Moreover, in Applications, and Products), one of the largest vendors of
scenarios where low altitude flight is required in order to enterprise resource planning, has brought three of its major
capture extremely detailed images, which is more common technologies together in order to make the information
in agriculture applications then the multi-rotor are harvested through UAVs more effective [258]. The
considered the better choice, some major examples belongs technologies include the HANA, a Cloud database which
to this type are DJI Matrice 200 [253] and Introducing supports speedy data capture, retrieval, and analytics; the
Scout by American Robotics [254] which considered a fully Leonardo IoT suite to connect and exchange information
autonomous drone for daily agriculture scouting. over any protocol; and the Connected Agriculture suite to
provide a GUI-based, graphical-use interface to the farmers.
While it depends on the situation, in most cases, few hours
delays doesn't leave serious impact in most of the
agriculture applications but flight time is more important as
need to cover larger areas due field vastness.
Soil
a) Fixed wing
High Stress
Mild Stress
Well Watered
b) Multi-rotor
FIGURE 10: Types of Agricultural Drones
FIGURE 11: NDVI Based Water Stress Map of 160 Acre Walnut Orchard
Generally, drones collect information through the light [259]
reflected by the ground it is maneuvering, over, either from Not only vastness, but in some applications of pesticide and
soil or plants. For agricultural applications, specific fertilizer, UAVs need to carry heavy payloads. In such
cameras and sensors are used, depending on the grower's situations, optimum battery utilization becomes crucial to
interest—most commonly mentioned are thermal and extend the flight time. For this purpose, many factors can
hyper-spectral. Thermal sensors can help to recognize the be considered to increase the drone efficiency. Firstly,
water quantity, as leaves of plants with more water access when flying, choose right conditions e.g. weather or air
appear cooler in an image. The same phenomenon is used direction. Next, try to include optimum payload and place it
in near-infrared (NIR) sensors; commonly used to note the appropriately. For this situation, it can be helpful to attach
difference between the NIR reflectance and the visible the payload near the field, better in smaller quantities and
reflectance, such as NDVI [255]. The resultant NDVI-based the refilling again instead of putting heavy quantities.
images help to distinguish the water stress areas, as shown Further, depending on area size and visiting frequency,
in figure 11. Hyper-spectral based sensors or cameras optimum path selection plays a critical role. For this
record the wavelengths of both visible and invisible lights, purpose, many routing schemes like [260, 261] are
are able to identify the specific type of plant by measuring proposed especially for the UAVs so choosing and
the color of reflected light. This reflected light is used to implementing the right scheme can provide clear
distinguish various plant types, ultimately helping to detect difference. Considering the application of pesticide and
the unwanted herbicide and weeds [256]. The idea is used UAV based irrigation where drone need to fly with heavy
in [257], where authors used the multispectral images to payloads then new procedures like tethering system can be
classify various weeds. helpful. In UAV tethering, a connection that provide power
VOLUME XX, 2019 18
through the long cable, is provided so that it can fly as long growth and field related factors like its geometry and
as you have power backup on the ground, most importantly nutrients ultimately help to optimize the crop management
it doesn't require to lift heavy batteries. operations.
Currently, agriculture is being considered one of the most
favorable fields where UAVs can offer solutions to resolve D. IRRIGATION
many dominant and long-lasting issues. Some of key areas Use of drones for irrigation applications is, again, two-fold.
in which drones are already playing key roles to assist On one side, equipping UAVs with a variety of sensors and
farmers throughout the crop cycle are highlighted below. cameras can help to identify areas that are under water
stress and conclude what irrigation changes are required. At
A. SOIL AND FIELD ANALYSIS the same time, they can be used for sprinkling water and
Drones are able to produce precise information to analyze pesticides on the crops precisely, especially in emergency
the soil before sowing the crop, which helps to determine cases, which would save both time and wastage. In [273],
the most suitable crop for specific land; furthermore, it multispectral images of citrus crops were acquired using the
suggests the seed type and its planting patterns. In [262] fixed-wing UAV, where the retrieved data was used to
authors shared their experimental results using Sirius I, a assess and detect structural and physiological changes in
fixed-wing aircraft, affixed with a Lumix GF1 digital the targeted crop. Further, [274, 275] are similar efforts in
camera by Panasonic to capture images from different sites which UAVs were used to estimate the crop water stress.
to monitor the soil erosion issues in Morocco. Similarly, Furthermore, UAVs are not only used to analyze the
authors in [263] targeted the issues of soil analyses where irrigation properties but also provide solutions by sprinkling
they used Lumix DMC-LX 3 to take the images and water precisely over the water stress areas as in [276]. Due
Pix4UAV for mapping the results. to this application of UAVs, they are being considered the
newest water-saving tool, while their use is helping not
B. PLANTING only to increase watering efficiency but also detect possible
Millions of acres of land are currently under-utilized due to pooling or leaks in irrigation. Examples like 'JT20L-606'
being human inaccessible or lack of suitable workers. [277] and 'AGRASMG-1' [278] are specialized drones that
Safety concerns of rough terrain are main reason not to were developed and are being used for this purpose.
utilize these areas for forestry or agriculture purpose. For
this purpose, drone based planting systems are being E. PLANT COUNTING AND GAP DETECTION
developed that decrease planting costs upto 85 percent Precision agriculture critically needs the spatial data on
[264]. Not only cost, but within shorter time as some crop density when making decisions during various
recently developed drones can plant 100,000 trees in a applications. The quantity and plant numbering not only
single day [265]. These systems shoot pods which include reflects the field emergence but allows better and more
the seeds and necessary nutrients required to grow the precise assessment of the yield production, in fact,
plant. This method is found very effective for rough terrain; determining the crop fate. Again, UAVs are offering
most importantly the success rate is more than 75% [266]. flexible solutions for this purpose. In [279], authors
Due to the success and flexibility they offer, UAVs are performed digital counting of Maize plants with the help of
being considered the best candidate for plantation all over UAVs. Further, in [280], authors proposed a method in
the world, from NASA engineer [267] to countries like which they used UAVs to estimate the density of wheat
Pakistan [268] and India [269]. plants at the emergence stage while a Sony ILCE α5100L
RGB camera was used to take the images.
C. CROP MONITORING F. SPRAYING THE PESTICIDES/HERBICIDES
Crop monitoring is one of tough jobs and facing low Similar to irrigation, UAVs can be used to spray
efficiency due to covering large area. Drones are offering herbicides/pesticides on crops, but their use for these
the solutions by allowing real-time monitoring of far farms, applications is more critical. Spraying application would be
more accurately and cost-effectively comparing with highly efficient compared to current procedures;
previously used satellite imagery. The Microdrones +m herbicides/pesticides are usually sprayed over the entire
[270] is an accessory toolkit which provides aerial imaging farm, which is not required in most cases. If using an UAV
facility to observe the crop nutrients, moisture levels and to spray herbicide, it can spray directly on the unwanted
monitoring of other necessary parameters. A study weeds or can target the affected areas only. Furthermore, as
conducted in [271] where authors used UAVs along digital spraying using drones would be highly targeted, the drone
camera to monitor the crop conditions. The purpose of the would figure out and spray as per requirements, helping to
study was to find the relationship between the crop spectral reduce the overall expenditures. Handling the sudden
characteristics and effect of fertilizer availability for plant environment changes like wind direction or speed is
health. Further, [272] presents an innovative procedure to another issue for an UAV especially when being used for
compute and map the 3-dimensional geometric spraying applications. For this purpose, [281] proposed a
characteristics of trees and tree-rows. The generated maps computer based system that autonomously adopt the UAV
can be helpful to understand the relation between the trees‘ control rules to keep precise pesticide deposition.
19 VOLUME XX, 2019
G. HEALTH ASSESSMENT A comprehensive report regarding the future food

Scanning crops with visible and Infrared (IR) light sensors requirements published by World Resources Institutes
fitted on drones can identify which plants may be infected (WRI) in 2018, highlights that we need sustainable food
by bacteria or fungus. Using UAVs, this can be done industry to feed 10 billion people by 2050. The report
frequently and with flexibility. The early detection of any suggests a five-course menu of solutions to tackle the future
such issues helps to prevent the disease being spread to food issues where "reduction in food losses and waste" is
other plants or crop areas. Multispectral images can help to declared as the first and most important course [291].
detect the disease or sickness at early stages even before Further it conclude that, reducing the food loss and waste
reaching the level in which it is possible to detect with the only by 25% can help to reduce the food gap by 12%, the
human eye. Experiments done in [281] present the data land gap by 27% and greenhouse gas mitigation gap by
collection campaign performed over a sorghum crop which 15%. To have better idea, detailed figures about the food
was severely damaged by white grubs. Further, in [282], loss are highlighted in figure 12 based on various
UAVs are used to collect data from ground-based sensors, geographical locations and considering the stages along
including a chlorophyll meter, water potential meter, and food supply chain where these losses are occurring.
spectroradiometer, and the collected information was used Consumption
to evaluate the plant health and crop condition, ultimately Distribution/
Transport
% of food lost and wasted

reflecting the ground truth.
Processing
H. DETECTION/RECOGNITION OF PLANT SPECIES

Recently, UAVs are being started to detect and recognize Handling and
Storage
the plant species, especially those are considered extinct or
remains only few on our Earth. An UAV is a best candidate
to perform this task as it can go in very remote locations
those are almost inaccessible to humans. As National Production
Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) stated that,
North Industrialized Europe North Latin South and Sub-Saharan
Hibiscadelphus woodi, a Hawaiian flower, which thought to America Asia Africa, West America Southeast Africa
be extinct in 2009, is discovered on a vertical cliff face and Central Asia
Asia
using the drone [283]. Similarly, using the special cameras
that can detect the forest biomass and fuel, forest fuel 42% 25% 22% 19% 15% 17% 23%
estimation is possible through UAVs which is mostly being Share of total food that lost or wasted
done from radars and satellites [284, 285]. FIGURE 12: Food Losses Occurring along Food Supply Chain [291]
VI. FOOD SAFETY AND TRANSPORTATION

With the increasing population, we have to feed around Other than WRI, the figures released by United Nations'
25% more mouths until 2050, as compared to 2010, which FAO are also shocking as it is estimated that one-third of all
the global food produced for human use, valued at $1
appears to be a monumental task when considering the vast
trillion, is lost or wasted each year [292]. The US food
hunger issues that the world is currently facing. The
waste alone represents 1.3% of its total GDP [293]. Based
numbers are shocking, as more than one-quarter of the
planet‘s population suffers from malnutrition [286] and on these scary figures, it can be concluded that food waste
nearly one billion people are chronically hungry [287]. is massive market inefficiency—the kind of which does not
Considering this current hunger scenario, it could be big persist in other industries [294]. Although, the loss of $1
trillion has its own worth, but, more crucially,
ask to feed the new billions of mouths in the future. In order
environmental implications of these losses are real, such as
to handle the situation, some believe the solution lies
the water wasted to produce the food that is never eaten
simply in growing more food. This has also been reinforced
by a latest research, published in the journal Bioscience, being equal to the water that can fulfill the needs of all of
which concludes that from the present time until 2050, the Africa [286]. Furthermore the CO2 emissions that resulted
during the growing process of this food are equivalent to
rise in total food production should be in the bracket of 25-
removing every car off the road across the world [291].
70%. [288]. However, what if someone tells you that
Moreover, according to another study conducted by FAO,
there‘s already enough food currently grown on farms to
if you consider food waste as a source of greenhouse gas
feed 10 billion people? [289].
Yes, the good news is that we are already producing enough emissions, it would be the third biggest emitter in the world
food for that many people; however, it is a crucial matter to behind only China and the United States [295]. In addition,
when food waste goes to the landfill, where it mostly ends
figure out that how to distribute this food while maintaining
up, it decomposes in the absence of oxygen and produces
its quality. Considering this fact, one can say that increasing
methane, which is 23 times more potent than carbon
the food production is also important, but transporting the
existing available food safely and efficiently to more people dioxide in terms of negative effects. In short, every which
is the real subject of issue of the food industry [290]. way you look at it; food waste is a major culprit in
destroying our planet.
VOLUME XX, 2019 20
Among all perishable food produced in the world today, even in transport trucks. Further, it is linked to an online
only 10% is preserved properly [296]. When we talk about dashboard that can be configured to send alerts in the event
most of the developed countries, a robust food cold chain is of abnormal temperature levels to trigger swift remedial
maintained where essential quality checks are followed, action. Some of key technologies available for this purpose
entailing temperature-regulated refrigerated warehouses to and their use cases are mentioned here.
refrigerated trucks to ensure that food gets from farm to
market safely. On the other hand, many developing A. ComplianceMate
countries lack such proper cold chain infrastructure, simply Compliance with hazard analysis and critical control points
resulting the majority of food spoiling when being (HACCP) offers a food safety and quality monitoring
transported to the end-user. Considering this fact, there is a program which collects temperature data inside coolers and
huge opportunity to cut food waste and improve food other kitchen equipment continuously. For example, its
distribution by simply implementing a controlled- integration with Touchblock is used to capture temperatures
temperature transportation system. Based on the facts, one in coolers and prep rooms at every minute [298].
can conclude that increasing food production is not
sufficient to achieve food security, but, rather, some B. Laird’s Sentrius
practical actions are required to find skillful ways for A battery-powered and long-range integrated sensor
efficient distribution of the already available food. platform that leverages the benefits of LoRaWAN and
There are different ways to monitor and control food Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connectivity. It provides
temperature. The manual method of checking a LoRaWAN options at 868/915 MHz, based on the Semtech
thermometer and recording the temperature has many SX1272 and Nordic nRF51 silicon. Further, it offers high
drawbacks, where someone must actually do it and, most RF performance in a precise temperature and humidity.
importantly, take the readings correctly. On other side, Two major series, including RS1xx and RG1xx (multi-
implementing an automatic method that uses wireless wireless gateways), work together in order to provide
sensors to electronically measure and record temperatures Cloud-based services. Most importantly, it requires an
can substantially improve food safety. This method allows inexpensive endpoint radio and a more sophisticated base
for a continuous data stream of temperatures simply—24 station to manage the network. As compared to LoRa,
hours a day, 7 days a week. By doing so, temperatures can Sigfox communication tends to be better if it is headed up
be recorded consistently and on time, leaving little room for from the endpoint to the base station. Although it supports
interpretation; in short, the entire process is based on facts the bidirectional functionality, its capacity going from the
and nothing more. Further, utilizing the recent technologies, base station back to the endpoint is constrained, as it
the recorded data can be stored in the Cloud and accessed provides less link width going down than going up.
via any type of internet-connected device. Notifications can
C. CCP Smart Tag (RC4)
be established that will send real-time alerts if the
temperature strays outside preset limits, allowing for CCP claims to be a complete monitoring solution for the
immediate action to remedy the situation. Further, IoT food service and food retail industry [299]. It is capable to
automate the temperature environment which meets the
offers predictive maintenance and indicate when the
food safety regulations suggested for various food items.
monitoring equipment itself is going to end its useful life so
it can be replaced before it fails and compromises product Further, temperature and other data are interpreted and
quality. These are only couple of scenarios, now if we viewed on a service provider Cloud platform via web and
consider the figures presented in figure 12, IoT has the mobile applications.
potential to monitor and keep the food quality at every D. TempReporter:
stage of the supply chain, from production to consumption. In compliance with HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical
A research study conducted by Indian School of Business in Control Points), it is used to monitor temperatures 24/7.
which students worked with a local grower to transport Further, it logs the readings automatically. Reports are
fruits and vegetables in refrigerated trucks from Punjab to auto-filled by considering HACCP & HPRA (Health
Bangalore, a distance of more than 2,500 km through rough Products Regulatory Authority) recommendations
roads under high temperatures. The results were highly regarding temperature monitoring.
encouraging to implement the cold chain to transport the According to Finistere Ventures report, as of 2018, around
agriculture products. The out of conducted study brought $2 billion has been invested globally in AgTech. Several
benefits in three ways: (1) increased food shelf-life from investments are expected to cross these figures in 2019.
one week to two months; (2) an up to 23% higher profit for Considering the future needs of IoT in agriculture
everyone linked in the supply chain was observed; (3) a applications, almost all leading technological giants are
76% reduction of food wastage (post-harvest). Besides all supporting this progress in their own way. Table V provides
this, another critical factor is the emission of greenhouse a list of several of the leading global organizations who
gases was observed to be reduced by 16% [297]. have proposed and are proposing initiatives in AgTech,
To provide the recommended environment, a device with especially in regard to IoT-based agriculture solutions.
supported technology can be installed at the storage site,
21 VOLUME XX, 2019
TABLE V
CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE VISION OF MAJOR TECHNOLOGICAL GIANTS REGARDING THE IOT IN AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY
Organization Initiatives and Vision

Microsoft has begun investing in smart agriculture. The company launched a 5-year, $50-million
initiative in 2018 called "AI for Earth" [300]. In this program, Microsoft targets four critical areas for
building a suitable future: climate, agriculture, biodiversity and water. According to the company's
Microsoft
DNA, the basic purpose of this move is to leverage their expertise in cloud computing, AI (Artificial
Intelligence) and IoT to solve agricultural problems. FarmBeats [301] is their main project, and it aims
to provide unique solutions to democratizing AI services for farmers around the world.
To offer healthier food systems, Google and MIT Media Lab Open Agriculture Initiative (OpenAg TM)
have suggested a vision for the future of crops and agriculture [302]. To provide the latest cloud-based
services in agriculture, this program includes Food Computer TM devices, and various open source
Google technologies in enclosed and climate controlled environments. They have also suggested various
initiatives, such as their Climate Recipes plan, which proposes solutions based on cross linking plant
phenotypic responses to environmental, biologic, and other genetic variables. Furthermore, the aim of
this program is to define the resources required for this purpose.
Watson Decision, an AI-based service, provides an agriculture platform that aims to improve harvests,
sustainability, and quality of smart agriculture using modern technology and IoT [303]. In this way,
IBM leverages its experience, data and AI services to help the farmers make better decisions
Watson, IBM
throughout the crop stages. This new innovate agriculture platform utilizes IBM‘s most advanced
facilities and capabilities in AI, IoT, and cloud computing to create a high-tech resource that targets the
complete ecosystem, from farm to fork.
Infiswift [304] is an IoT platform based on high performance Intel architecture that seeks to increase
the efficiency of agriculture operations by providing connected services across the agriculture
ecosystem. Its basic purpose is to help the farming industry in order to build connected and data-rich
Intel
solutions to securely collect, transmit, analyze and act on key data. Infiswift works closely with
growers, manufactures, and service providers to identify and build IoT hardware and software solutions
based on the most recent smart agriculture challenges and requirements.
Jasper, which is part of the CISCO corporation, provides a cloud-based software platform for the IoT in
Agribusiness, which is rapidly embracing IoT services to capitalize on automation, real-time visibility
Jasper, CISCO and remote diagnostics to achieve smart agriculture [305]. Products like Topcon, Motech, Observant
and Semios are the best examples that bring the power of communications, sensor technology and
cloud computing to the agriculture industry to enhance productivity and efficiency.
Dell has started to introduce agricultural robots and machines equipped with the latest machine learning
and AI capabilities. Recently, the company has joined with Aerofarms (a vertical farming force) to
accelerate IoT and data science services for smart agriculture [306]. AeroFarms, a vertical farm in
Dell
Newark, is 130 to 390 times more productive than a traditional farm as a result of the help it receives
from Dell‘s IoT team; it utilizes 95% less water. AeroFarms has further stated that the success of
vertical farming would be impossible without Dell‘s edge to core to cloud IoT architecture.
Purdue University has begun using IoT and wireless innovations to revolutionize agricultural research:
terabytes of data are being captured on a daily basis via various sensors, cameras and types of human
input, all of which are processed and analyzed in real time. To efficiently produce quality food and
HPE fuel, Purdue is partnering with HPE to blend research, innovations and technologies (like IoT and cloud
computing) to transform the current practices in digital agriculture. To process such huge volumes of
data using an HPE supercomputer, the university is utilizing a combination of wireless sensors and
edge computing technologies, provided by HPE and Aruba Networks (an HPE company) [307].
Hello Tractors and IBM Research have built an AI and blockchain-based platform that especially
focuses on Africa‘s farmers [308]. The technology giants are jointly going to pilot the product this year,
Hello Tractors which is co-financed by IBM. The cloud-based service, named Dubbed Digital Wallet, aims to support
Hello Tractor‘s business, which focuses on providing small-scale farmers with technological equipment
and data analytics to create a smart agriculture environment.
Qualcomm Ventures (QV) has been one of the leading wireless tech players over the last 15 years, and
now QV considers AgTech to be one of the major investment areas for future projects. Their recent
Qualcomm global partnerships with Strider (a Brazilian farm management platform) [309], Ninjacart (an Indian
agribusiness marketplace) [310], FarmEasy (a Chinese farm data platform) [311] and especially their
partnerships in Latin-America (LatAm) [312] reveal the value they place on smart agriculture.
VOLUME XX, 2019 22
Furthermore, QV invested $15 million in the AgTech start-up Prospera, which taps data analytics,
computer vision and AI services to support farmers.
To face the global challenge of a 70% increase in food production to feed the global population of 10
billion by 2050, the "Farm2050" initiative has been proposed [313]. It is considered a significant move
Farm2050 for the future of AgTech as more than 25 of the world‘s leading organizations, including Microsoft,
Google, Pepsi, Bayer and John Deere, are partnering with this organization. Its basic goal is to utilize
technology to advance the future of food by supporting AgTech entrepreneurs and startups.
VII. CURRENT CHALLENGES AND FUTURE but also for production patterns and land tenure.
EXPECTATIONS Furthermore, on one side, arable land is shrinking while,
According to a plan announced in 2015 under "The 2030 among the remaining regions, many are only suitable for
Agenda for Sustainable Development", the UN and specific crops due to certain geographic and environmental
international community set a target to end hunger by 2030. limitations. Moreover, harsh climate changes are starting to
However, recent figures released by WHO (World Health affect almost every aspect of crop production. These
Organization) do not look encouraging enough to support changes are expected to enhance the intensity of many of
the agenda, as more than 800 million people worldwide are the existing long-term environmental issues, like droughts,
facing the food shortage—one out of every nine people floods, groundwater depletion, soil degradation, etc.
[314]. Although these figures are quite alarming on their
AGRICULTURE MUST BE WE MUST REDUCE
own, what is more shocking is the quality of food. Other WE WILL NEED THE EMISSIONS
RESTRICTED TO EXPAND MORE
than availability, the quality of food is becoming another
56% 12 Gt CO2e
serious issue and even more critical. Currently
More food
According to a research supported by the Bill & Melinda Agriculture -67%
Gates Foundation published in ―The Lancet‖, either use ≃50%
shortage or poor diets are diverting 11 million people to an of World's 4 Gt CO2e
Vegetated land
early grave annually, making it more deadly than smoking
To Feed
[315]. The research, which reflects the effect of poor diet Utilizing Innovative
on health, was conducted in 195 countries from 1990 to Technologies, Like
2050
9.8 B
2017 and concluded that one out of five deaths per year Smart
Farming
could be prevented by providing better diet. The report
593 million-hectare Urban
summarizes that, globally, a diet lower in whole grains was more land required Agriculture
2010
the most common and leading risk factor for deaths. Other 6.8 B
than the basic food needs, per capita incomes of most of the More Resilient
Resources Crop breeds
countries in 2050 are expected to be a multiple as compared
to today's levels [316]. Such an increase in income will FIGURE 13: Major Challenges for Sustainable Future Agriculture
result in a more health-conscious population that expects
quality food that is rich in fiber and other minerals. Trends, During the 20th century, in most regions, growers kept
like increased population where the world needs to feed one following the traditional agricultural methods while trying
third more mouths with increased demand of quality food, to meet the food demands by greater utilizing fertilizers and
show that food demands continue to grow rapidly. pesticides. Implementation of such chemicals is facing two
In response to all this, overall crop production needs to issues: these can help to increase the production to only a
increase not only for food but cash-crops are also required certain level and, at the same time, their blind use is
to grow in order to fulfill the demands of industry, like creating irreversible implications to the environment.
cotton and rubber, and, most importantly, increasing Furthermore, implementation of any resource, like water,
demands for bioenergy like ethanol. seed, fertilizers, and pesticides, uniformly across an entire
Figure 13 presents a snapshot of major challenges that field is not going to solve the problem. Rather than dealing
future agriculture expected to face in 2050. This diagram, with every farm and crop in same way, farmers need to use
basically presents three major issues: how to feed around 10 these resources according to the requirement of specific
billion people; without using more land and; by reducing areas, even if they have to consider the requirement of
the emission of greenhouse gasses by more than 60%. every plant.
However, when we look closely then these three challenges Focusing on the above discussion, one can feel that the
lead to many new, including smaller rural labor, farms and relevant crop operations need to be run
continuously shrinking arable land, water scarcity, harsh differently than the past practices. One of the major reasons
weather conditions, and many more. As the world moves is the advancements in technology, including sensors,
toward urbanization, the rural populations are not only communication methods, machines, and even robots. In
shrinking but are rapidly aging; hence, fewer and younger fact, technology has proved this already, as, in most
growers need to step up to take the responsibility. Such developing countries; more than 50% of the population is
population imbalance and generation shift can create somehow engaged in the agriculture industry yet are far
serious implications, not only for the remaining workforce behind in providing both the quantity and quality when
23 VOLUME XX, 2019
compared with the developed countries, where less than 2% B. COMMUNICATION

of the population is performing much better. The difference Real success of IoT in agriculture largely depends on
is clear, as countries like Australia, the US, and most of advances in connectivity. From telecom's perspective,
Europe are pioneers to employ the advanced tools and providing mainly connectivity and other value-added
methods multiplying the crop yields during the last five services has an immense potential and can influence the
decades. These comparisons show that recent technologies entire chain greatly [318]. Most of the telecom operators
and advanced methods are making the farms not only around the globe offer connectivity services, but such
highly profitable but safe and environmentally friendly. services only represent a tiny amount of the entire smart
Considering this scenario, future agriculture is expected to agriculture market. Considering its worth, especially in
evolve as a high-tech industry where interconnected rural areas, the cellular operators have to offer a new range
systems will enjoy the luxury of artificial intelligence and of services targeting the growers‘ demands. Accepting the
Big Data facilities. The resultant systems will converge into fact that most of the community belong to this industry are
a single unit where farm machinery and management, not highly educated and mostly unaware of new
starting from seeding to production forecasting, are technologies, hence the operator should provide end-to-end
combined. By involving the advanced technologies like solutions other than just providing the connectivity. If so,
agricultural robots, Big Data, and cloud-computing then it will certainly help to increase the market share of
artificial intelligence, agriculture can create a new era of mobile and telecom operators. Further, these operators need
superfusion. Following are some of the key technologies partnerships with the investors to provide end-to-end
and methods that need to apply; focusing to achieve solutions, which demands higher investment, even before
sustainable future agriculture. advantages can be seen. The results of success when
inviting the investors depend on the nature of the
A. WIRELESS SENSORS AND THE IOT partnership and the involved bodies, like device
Wireless sensors placed strategically around fields are manufacturers, solution providers, non-cellular connectivity
providing farmers with up-to-date information in real time, service providers, system integrators, etc. On one side, the
allowing them to adapt the care that the crops need, which outcome of this partnership would help operators to enter
results in higher food production with less waste. Wireless deeper into the industry, ultimately boosting their market
sensor networks (WSNs) are also being used to inform share. At the same time, this opportunity can create strong
farmers about nearly all aspects of their crop growth as well relationships among the organizations and farmers to help
as about the readiness state of the farm‘s machinery, thus, to educate them about the benefits of smart agriculture.
helping in preventing loss of crop as well as enhancing the The success of cellular technology is only possible when
readiness of the equipment which cultivates it. WSNs with service providers leverage its real benefits like portability,
GPS capability are helping tractors in compensating for flexibility and luxury of two way communication to offer
uneven terrain and optimizing land preparation for growing low cost but customized solutions. They must provide what
crops. Recently, advances in image recognition and digital the farmer is in need, at the place they choose. Furthermore,
signal processing gave even more capabilities to WSN to to provide fast penetration in agriculture industry, policy
accurately determine crop quality and health. changes are required in order to provide access of reliable
In order to make agriculture sustainable, the use of the IoT and quality inputs. The research conducted in [173] which
will be at the center and forefront in agricultural operations. considers 23 studies where mostly belong to developing
This includes everything from water and power usage, crop countries, concludes that the cellular services and
transportation, farm machinery operation and maintenance smartphone technology carry a promising future for
alerts, and market price updates. The IoT has the capability smallholder farmers being capable to improve their yields.
to make these tasks streamlined and more predictable by Furthermore, licensed LPWA (low-power wide-area)
recognizing the crop‘s needs at every stage. It has already technology is expected to be a game changer for smart
proved a breakthrough and is further going to change the agriculture. Due to its characteristics and supported services
way we look at various agriculture activities by providing including low power consumption and efficient coverage
the farmer control over their land and assets in an are well suited to the geography and economics of
unprecedented way, thus, maximizing their effectiveness agriculture hence expected to play a critical role in future
and efficiency. Further, the future of the IoT can be shaped smart farming. Consequently, narrowband IoT (NB-IoT)
by the phenomenal advances in WSNs and the fifth got strong industry support and becoming an effective
generation (5G) of cellular mobile communication global standard for LPWA connectivity. It has the potential
technologies to provide farmers with real-time data and to provide major connectivity changes in agriculture
information anytime and everywhere their land is. Based on industry by changing the perceptions about Internet
recent success, it is estimated that more than 75 million capabilities. Believing in its future success, it is expected
IoT-based devices will be operating in the agriculture that leading cellular operators with strong IoT ambitions
industry by 2020. Further, the average farm is expecting to can generate significant revenues by providing smart
generate 4.1 million data points on a daily bases by 2050 agriculture services when collaborating with LPWA
[317]. technology providers. In order to achieve long term success
of these short, mid and long range communication
VOLUME XX, 2019 24
technologies, necessary steps for infrastructure construction including, long term sensor deployment, use of GPS
are required towards attaining the technology-based repeatedly and transmission of sensed data via GPRS.
agriculture. Traditionally, farmers in remote areas have bought and
utilized renewable energy sources randomly and at a hefty
C. UAVS AND OTHER ROBOTS price, which has limited their ability to use them in farming
Drones are being widely used by farmers for crop growth to a great extent. However to solve the power issues in long
monitoring and as a means to combat hunger and other term, deep analysis of power consumption sources like
harmful environmental impacts. Furthermore, they are remote data transmission can help to tackle the problem at
being used to spray water and other pesticides efficiently, some extent. Further, smart grids and microgrids, however,
considering the tough terrains, especially when the crops lend themselves to seamless integration of distributed
possess different heights. Drones have proven their value, energy sources (DERs), thus, making them appealing for
not only in terms of spraying speed but precision, as well, adoption by farmers. The emergence of smart power meters
when compared with traditional machinery of same has further given the farmers the confidence to invest in
purpose. With recent advances in swarm technology and DER, especially since they have the option to sell the
mission-based control, groups of drones equipped with excess power to the grid. Recent advances in energy storage
heterogeneous sensors, including 3D cameras, can work devices, integrated electricity and heat systems will make
together to provide farmers with comprehensive capabilities DER even more attractive for farmers, as they will be able
to manage their land. With the inclusion of UAVs in to store energy and use the heat generated by cooling and
agriculture, farmers are able to put their eye in sky, but heating when needed. However, healthy investment
many challenges need to be addressed in order to enjoy the requirements and public perceptions are two other barriers
real advantages of this technology, especially the on the way to making these solutions successful.
integration of other technologies and how to use them in
poor weather conditions. F. HYDROPONICS AND VERTICAL FARMING (VF)
Beside drones, robotics within agriculture have improved Other than employing the advanced technologies, new
productivity and resulted in higher and faster yields. Such agricultural practices can be very crucial to overcome the
robots, like spraying and weeding robots, are reducing geographic and resource limitation challenges. On one side,
agrochemical use. Robots equipped with laser and camera arable land is shrinking, and, at the same time, it is
guidance are being used for identifying and removing estimated that three million people around the globe are
weeds without human intervention. They navigate between migrating to cities, resulting in more pressure on the
rows of crops on their own, ultimately increasing the yield existing limited urban resources [319]. Considering this
with reduced manpower. More recently, plant-transplanting rapid migration, it is estimated that by 2030, 60% of the
and fruit-picking robots are emerging to add a new level of world‘s population is going to depend on cities, and this
efficiency to traditional methods. number is further expected to rise to 68% until 2050 [320].
Considering both of these issues, it could be disaster for
D. MACHINE LEARNING AND ANALYTICS food production in the near future with current agriculture
Machine learning and analytics are used to mine data for practices. VF is an answer of these issues, as it meets the
trends. In farming, machine learning is used, for example, challenges of land and water shortage and, at the same time,
to predict which genes are best suited for crop production. looks highly suitable to be adopted near the cities. VF is
This has been giving growers all over the world the best portrayed as the answer to the looming shortage of food and
seed varieties, those which are highly suitable to respective shrinking arable land, at least in some areas of the world.
locations and climate conditions. Machine-learning Further, hydroponics can play a key role, as this method
algorithms, on the other hand, have indicated which lowers the requirements of water and space to a great
products are of high demand and which products are extent. Rapid growths in computer power are propelling
currently unavailable in the market. Thus, for the farmer, scientific discoveries in plant nutrition and growth that
this has given valuable clues for future farming. Recent would make VF even more appealing to growers.
advances in machine learning and analytics will make it Along VF and hydroponics, new and advanced solutions
possible for farmers to accurately classify their products are required to increase the arable land without disturbing
and weed out less desirable crops before they arrive to the forests and other natural animal habitats. For this, we
customers. have to focus on the deserts as these cover one third of the
Earth's land surface. The solutions are started already as
E. POWER CONSUMPTION, RENEWABLE ENERGY, Norwegian and Chinese firms/experts are doing efforts in
MICROGRIDS, AND SMART GRIDS Dubai, Qatar, Jordan and Chinese deserts [321-323].
Despite its future opportunities, smart agriculture facing Agriculture is not just an industry; in fact, it provides the
some limitations that are holding back the growth of IoT. basis of human society, as the goal is not just to grow crops,
One of them is power issue as due to its nature; smart but the target is the perfection of human being. A vibrant
farming requires wide use of energy. Among the main and prosperous agriculture sector can provide the basis for a
reasons of extensive power consumption some are happy and healthy society, as recent decades witnessed this.
25 VOLUME XX, 2019
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33 VOLUME XX, 2019
MUHAMMAD AYAZ received his EL-HADI M. AGGOUNE received

PhD degree in Information his MS and Ph.D. Degrees in Electrical
Technology from University Engineering from the University of
Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia, Washington (UW), Seattle, USA. He is
and MS degree in Computer Science a Professional Engineer registered in
from SZABIST Islamabad Pakistan the State of Washington, and Senior
in 2007 and 2011 respectively. Member of the Institute of the IEEE.
Currently he is working as Assistant He has taught graduate and
Professor and researcher with Sensor undergraduate courses in Electrical
Networks and Cellular Systems (SNCS) research center at the Engineering at a number of universities in the US and abroad. He
University of Tabuk, KSA. His research interests include Mobile served at many academic ranks including Endowed Chair
and Sensor Networks, Routing Protocols, Network Security and Professor and Vice President and Provost. One of the laboratories
Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks. He led various research he directed won the Boeing Supplier Excellence Award. He was
projects funded by University of Tabuk and Ministry of Higher also the winner of the IEEE Professor of the Year Award, UW
Education, KSA, especially related to water quality monitoring. Branch. He is listed as Inventor in a major patent assigned to the
Dr. Ayaz is the author of many research articles published under Boeing Company. His research work is referred to in many patents
IEEE, Elsevier, Springer, Wiley and other well-known journals. including patents assigned to ABB, Switzerland and EPRI, USA.
Currently he is a Professor and Director of the Sensor Networks
and Cellular Systems (SNCS) Research Center, University of
Tabuk, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. He authored many papers in IEEE
MOHAMMAD AMMAD UDDIN
and other journals and conferences. He is serving on many
receives his PhD degree form ENSTA
technical committees. His research interests include power
Bretagne France in wireless sensors
systems, wireless sensor networks, scientific visualization, and
network, MS in computer networks
neural Network.
from COMSATS Institute of
Information Technology Islamabad
Pakistan and M.Sc. of computer
sciences in Software Engineering from
Bahria University Islamabad Pakistan.
He is CCNA & CCAI Certified and currently is a Senior ALI MANSOUR received his M.Sc.
Researcher at the Sensor Networks and Cellular Systems Research and Ph.D. from INPG, France, and the
Centre University of Tabuk Kingdome of Saudi Arabia. He taught HDR degree (Habilitation a Diriger des
many graduate and undergraduate computer courses in number of Recherches, the highest degree in
universities in the Kingdome and abroad. He led many research France) from UBO, France. He held
and development projects in the area of wireless sensor networks, many positions: Postdoc at LTIRF –
underwater sensor networks and smart agriculture. He is the France, Researcher at RIKEN-Japan,
author of many research papers published in IEEE and other Teacher-Researcher at ENSIETA-
journals. He is listed as Inventor in a patent registered in the USA. France, Senior Lecturer at Curtin Uni-
His research area includes routing, clustering, and localization of Australia, Invited Prof at ULCO –France, Prof at Tabuk Uni-KSA,
sensors nodes in wireless sensor networks. Prof at ENSTA-Bretagne-France. He published more than 170-
refereed publications; his h-index is 27. In addition, he is the
ZUBAIR SHARIF completed BS in author of a book and co-author of three other books and four book
Computer Science from COMSATS chapters. During his career, he had successfully supervised several
University, Vehari and MS Computer Post Docs, PhD candidates, and MSc students. He is a senior
Science from COMSATS University, member of IEEE and was the vice president for IEEE signal
Sahiwal, in 2017 and 2019 respectively. processing society in Western Australia for two years. He has also
His research area belongs to Wireless been the lead guest editor for the EURASIP Journal on Advances
Sensors and Adhoc Networks. Currently in Signal Processing. He research interests includes Source
he is part time faculty member at Separation, High Order Statistics, signal processing, robotics,
COMSATS University Vehari, Pakistan. telecommunication, biomedical engineering, electronic warfare
and cognitive radio.
VOLUME XX, 2019 34

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Internet-of-Things (IoT) based Smart Agriculture:

VOLUME XX, 2019 1

M. Ayaz : Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

M. Ayaz: Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

M. Ayaz : Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

Environment Soil Preparation and laser-LED as well as an element as a radiation receiver.

M. Ayaz: Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

underground [31]. In short, humanity relies on this 0.5% to C. FERTILIZER

5 VOLUME XX, 2019

M. Ayaz : Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

M. Ayaz: Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

FIGURE 5: An IoT based Farm Area Network (FAN) A. GREENHOUSE FARMING

M. Ayaz : Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

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M. Ayaz: Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

9 VOLUME XX, 2019

M. Ayaz : Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

with almost every portion of advanced agricultural tools 5) OPTOELECTRONIC SENSORS

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M. Ayaz: Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

Fruit/ Stem Size

M. Ayaz : Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

M. Ayaz: Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

13 VOLUME XX, 2019

M. Ayaz : Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

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M. Ayaz: Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

developed for various agriculture applications along their

features and achievements.

M. Ayaz : Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

Mobile Apps Application Features/Achievements

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M. Ayaz : Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

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M. Ayaz: Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

19 VOLUME XX, 2019

M. Ayaz : Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

G. HEALTH ASSESSMENT A comprehensive report regarding the future food

% of food lost and wasted

H. DETECTION/RECOGNITION OF PLANT SPECIES

VI. FOOD SAFETY AND TRANSPORTATION

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M. Ayaz: Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

21 VOLUME XX, 2019

M. Ayaz : Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

Organization Initiatives and Vision

VOLUME XX, 2019 22

M. Ayaz: Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

M. Ayaz : Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

compared with the developed countries, where less than 2% B. COMMUNICATION

M. Ayaz: Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

25 VOLUME XX, 2019

M. Ayaz : Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)

The presence of advance technologies, especially the REFERENCES

VOLUME XX, 2019 26

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29 VOLUME XX, 2019

M. Ayaz : Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (April 2019)