Irrigation has always played a pivotal role in the agrarian economy of Asia and even today, Asia accounts for 70% of the world’s irrigated area, and this majorly depends upon the South Asian Summer Monsoon which has a critical impact on the region’s water resources, agriculture, economics and human mortality. Sadly, these monsoons are very unreliable for irrigation.
For this reason, farmers in Asia, and, particularly India, are grappling with inefficiencies in water resource management. In fact, the agricultural sector uses up to 78% of fresh water available in the country, the highest among other sectors (IBEF.org). There is a clear need for a smart irrigation system that can provide sufficient amount of water to the fields adjusting to soil’s moisture content.
With the rising acceptance of technology in all sectors, even the field of agriculture is seeing interesting innovations, including smart irrigation management systems that are able to save water and improve crop growth. These techniques provide farmers with effective tools to optimise their farming tasks as they are focused on increasing crop yields and profitability while lowering the levels of standard inputs needed to grow crops. Essentially, smart farming uses less to produce more. Also, one of the latest trends in the global smart irrigation systems market is the rise in adoption of drones by farmers for irrigation, that allows them to track the land and property at all times.
For these reasons the Indian government has been undertaking various initiatives towards water conservation and proper utilization in order to improve the water situation.
The IoT infrastructure gives the power of sustainable farming to the agriculture with the technology to transform unconnected products into connected devices that generate and analyse important information. The advantage of the connected technologies remains long-term as every drop of water saved with the help of smart irrigation amounts for a significant contribution to the global water conservation.
For further information visit: https://www.dqindia.com/smart-irrigation-how-iot-driven-precision-agriculture-helps-feed-the-emerging-economies/