The IoT can transform agriculture
Technews Industry Guide: Industrial Internet of Things 2017
IT in Manufacturing
Using IoT technologies can push the efficiency of farming to new levels as the food demands of a growing global population puts increasing pressure on agriculture around the world.
According to a report by Business Insider published at the end of last year, the world will need to produce 70% more food in 2050 than it did in 2006 in order to feed the earth’s growing population, based on numbers produced by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
André Strauss, director of partnerships at IoT.nxt, highlights five key areas where the use of IoT technology can improve efficiencies and reduce costs:
Digitisation of the value and supply chains allows for produce to be tracked and traced from source to retail shelf, delivering quality control and the ability to identify problem areas at production source.
By connecting all legacy machinery warehousing/packaging plants can be more productive and efficient. Farm managers can, for instance, assess how many packers, machines and delivery trucks will be required on any given day.
Energy management, a significant cost at large scale farming operations. Use of power, management of irrigation, pumps, dam levels, water required at production plants are all aspects of energy use that can be managed in real time and changed seamlessly for exceptional cost savings and improved efficiency.
Tracking of livestock which, amongst other things, will allow for management of health of livestock.
Management of fuel, another variable cost that has a direct impact on the cash flow of any farm. Using a digitised, connected management system allows for exact planning of fuel supply required for times of peak and reduced levels of activity.
BI Intelligence, Business Insider’s research service, predicts that IoT device installations in the agriculture world will increase from 30 million in 2015 to 75 million in 2020, for a compound annual growth rate of 20%.
According to the BI report the value of using IoT smart agriculture is evident in numbers available for the current leader of using IoT in farming, the United States, where 7 340 kg of cereal (e.g. wheat, rice, maize, barley, etc.) is produced per hectare of farmland, compared to the global average of 3 851 kg per hectare.
For more information contact Daleen van Wyk, IoT.nxt, +27 (0)83 302 0827, daleen.vanwyk@iotnxt.com, www.iotnxt.com
Further reading:
How to navigate the high-stakes economics of AI infrastructure
IT in Manufacturing
Nearly 60% of data centre operators are expected to adopt liquid cooling within five years as AI workloads drive demand for higher rack densities. Understanding the full financial picture of liquid cooling, from capital investment to long-term operational savings, is now essential.
Read more...
Protecting the digital mine
RJ Connect
IT in Manufacturing
As mining becomes increasingly connected and automated, cyber threats are emerging alongside the benefits of digitalisation. RJ Connect and provides rugged networking, edge computing and cybersecurity technologies from MOXA to help protect critical mining operations from evolving attacks.
Read more...
SICK launches AI-powered 3D quality inspection
SICK Automation Southern Africa
IT in Manufacturing
SICK has combined deep learning with 3D height data analysis in its Nova machine vision platform.
Read more...
Predictive maintenance is the critical enabler for AI data centre liquid cooling systems
IT in Manufacturing
As liquid cooling becomes essential for AI data centres, predictive and condition-based maintenance are emerging as critical enablers of thermal stability. Schneider Electric argues that the infrastructure is already generating the data needed and the question is whether operators are equipped to use it.
Read more...
Siemens software scales with Simple Energy EV development
Siemens South Africa
IT in Manufacturing
: Simple Energy, an Indian electric two-wheeler manufacturer, has expanded its use of Siemens Xcelerator software to manage complex vehicle variants and enterprise-level bills of materials, accelerating product development as its EV portfolio scales.
Read more...
ESG as a growth lever
RS South Africa
IT in Manufacturing
Leading organisations are treating ESG not as a compliance obligation but as a practical tool for operational efficiency, supply chain resilience and business performance, with data and collaboration central to unlocking its value.
Read more...
Preparing Africa’s data centres for the demands of autonomous AI
Schneider Electric South Africa
IT in Manufacturing
Africa’s data centre infrastructure must evolve significantly to support agentic AI workloads, with GPU-intensive computing, advanced cooling and reliable power demanding a fundamentally different approach to facility design and investment.
Read more...
Virtualising the control room to reshape building management systems
Schneider Electric South Africa
IT in Manufacturing
Schneider Electric explains how virtualising building management systems frees facilities teams from ageing hardware, delivers stronger cybersecurity and enables portfolio-wide control from a single interface.
Read more...
AI infrastructure solutions for data campus
Schneider Electric South Africa
IT in Manufacturing
Schneider Electric and Motivair deliver more than $290 million in power and cooling infrastructure for TeraWulf’s AI-ready Lake Mariner data campus.
Read more...
Africa’s data centre evolution: AI, edge computing and new energy demands
IT in Manufacturing
With less than half a gigawatt of active white space capacity serving over a billion people, Africa’s data centre sector faces a stark gap that AI’s surging power and cooling demands are set to widen. Vertiv and Open Africa Data Centres unpack how modularity, edge computing and smarter energy strategies could change the equation.
Read more...
printer friendly version