Agricultural revolution with drones and precision farming.

New technology has an important role to play in sustainable agriculture ,the vice president of precision solutions and telematics operations Marzia said, adding that one of the most important new developments in precision farming was the advent of telematics. An agricultural revolution that uses telematics data is creating new opportunities which will require open, secure and accessible data systems. Telematics allow for the wireless transfer of data from machines at work on the field to the farm office, enabling real time monitoring and two way communications, whether for the optimization of a single machine or that of all farming processes. Ian Beecher-Jones, a precision farming consultant noted that about 60% of Britain’s farmland is being managed by precision methods, which include sensor systems, cameras, drones, microphones, virtual field maps, analytics and GPS-guided tractors. These technologies – examples of the so-called internet of things – are fueling what is being called the agricultural revolution. Clive Blacker, an arable farmer from Yorkshire, recognized about 20 years ago that change was coming. “It was 1998,” he said, “and it came being sat on the tractor seat and realizing that there was so much variability in the fields. There are the good bits and the bad bits, and we were treating them all the same way. I thought that there were better solutions for this.” Blacker began to experiment with nascent technologies like yield mapping and, in 2004, set up a small business, Precision Decisions, to supply hardware to farmers. One of the technologies he markets is the N Sensor from the German firm, Yara, which he says is being used at 250 farms in the UK. The N Sensor gives an example of the kind of precision farming technology available to farmers today. It consists of a cab-mounted tool – imagine a surfboard bolted onto the roof of a tractor – that is equipped with sensors at either end. The sensors gaze outwards, analyzing the color of a growing crop. From this data the N Sensor determines its chlorophyll content and, by an extension of logic, the crop’s nitrogen requirement. The N Sensor then relays the data to a spreader, which, in turn, applies the required dose of fertilizer to a specific part of the field. A Defra report found that 22% of farmers have GPS steering systems, 20% do soil mapping, 16% variable rate application (using technology like the N Sensor) and 11% yield mapping. Although these numbers might seem low, precision techniques are mostly used by farmers with large acreages who have greater resources to invest in the technology and make it cost effective. The agricultural revolution involve smart farming , It involves the use of miniature robots moving up and down the fields, inspecting plants and tugging out weeds. There are weather dependent sprayers and drones that hovered in the sky, relaying data to the farmhouse where charts of fields were plotted at a central hub. Sensors on animals also relays data to central hub for effective monitoring of animals on the field and on farms for different parameters. CNH Industrial offers a range of precision farming solutions spanning the crop production phases of planting, growing, harvesting and planning through the company’s global agricultural machinery brands, Case IH and New Holland Agriculture. Visit

Precision agriculture and unmanned tractors.

Cory Anstey always wanted to be a farmer. It was the joy of riding in the tractor, "the smell of the dirt in the spring" that drew him to the fields. Anstey, 44, is also a bit of a techie. Luckily for him, modern agriculture lets him embrace both of his passions. Anstey started using GPS technology in his machinery about 15 years ago and now even lets his tractor steer itself across his fields. "It's very addictive, once you've had it," he tells me while taking a break at the 21st Century Cooperative, a mechanic shop/gas station/grain elevator in Cumberland, Iowa. Known simply as "the Co-op," the dusty office with grimy floors is the most popular hangout in this town of 250 people. It's here where farmers, many clad in overalls and boots, gather to drink pop (soda, for those not in the Midwest), snack on popcorn and gossip -- which includes chatter about the latest machines. As farmers work more acres with the same -- or even less -- manpower and bigger, more unwieldy machines, they're increasingly turning to technology for help. But it's not the usual tech suspects like Google or Apple inventing a better pitchfork; instead, traditional agriculture machinery manufacturers like John Deere and New Holland keep stepping up their innovation. Self-driving tractors are commonplace (the farmer still sits behind the wheel). Sensors can detect everything from what the machine's doing to what the crop conditions are. Farmers can monitor the progress of planting and harvesting from their iPads, and tractors serve as their own mobile hotspots. It's a skewed reflection of our own increasingly connected world, except farmers have used many of those technologies, like auto-steering and GPS mapping, since the '90s. It used to take years for farmers to figure out the condition of their land. Today, a farmer doesn't need much institutional knowledge about the field he's working -- his tractor knows all, thanks to GPS mapping. Location tech manages three quarters of the acres farmed in Iowa, Darr said. Mapping technology talks to sensors in the machines, letting farmers track what's going on at each location, like yield and moisture level. You can see the info on a display built into the tractor, like a big GPS display. The data gets saved in the cloud and can be accessed on computers and tablets. Many farmers even mount iPads in their tractors as second monitors. The saying about real estate is location, location, location," said Ron Zink, John Deere's director of onboard applications. "It's the same with precision ag. You need to know exactly where you are." Planters have auto-shutoff technology that uses GPS to make sure a farmer doesn't accidentally plant an area twice, saving seeds, fuel and time. They can be nearly perfect in spacing seeds apart from each other, compared with only about 60 percent accuracy with planters from 10 years ago, according to Darr. Farmers can follow their yield in real time as they harvest their fields or go back to the data later. And the machines themselves collect information like the temperature of the engine, the amount of fuel used and the location of that machine, letting farmers repair and maintain equipment. contribution by cnet.com