The Significant Role Of RFID In Enabling Smart Farming
According to research, the world’s population is expected to reach ten billion people by 2050. With such a massive number of individuals, feeding everyone around the globe will undoubtedly present a difficult challenge for food producers, specifically farmers. With a growing population and increasing environmental footprint, it is high time for agricultural operations to adopt technologies that enhance efficiency. This is where the necessity for smart farming comes in.
Smart farming is a management concept that focuses on providing the agricultural sector with the infrastructure to maximise advanced technology for the purpose of improving productivity and efficiency. While food production is already considerably efficient, RFID can help to further enhance operations and processes throughout the global food supply chain.
To better understand the role of RFID in facilitating smart farming, read on as this article enumerates some key areas where the technology can help improve the world’s agricultural capabilities.
1. Allowing farm automation and control
Farming continues to be a labour-intensive operation that demands industrialised solutions that will help feed billions of individuals every day. As the world’s population skyrockets, automating some critical steps in the process can help to minimise some of the labour costs associated with food production. For instance, RFID crop tagging, network communications, and IoT sensors can all enable producers to monitor each phase of the planting, harvesting, and distribution processes.
By using accurate data from every animal or plant, farmers can increase their yields and easily detect any areas of concern that may impact their yield. Once the agricultural goods enter the supply chain, both the suppliers and the consumers will have access to relevant information during the distribution cycles. Like the use of RFID in retail, using monitors, sensors, and RFID tags will essentially allow farmers to automate numerous manual processes that used to slow down distribution cycles.
2. Increasing agricultural productivity
While many farms worldwide are highly efficient, individual plant RFID tagging and extensive monitoring systems will increase yields. Farmers who use traditional processes still need to manually take notes about every field or crop, figure out how to respond to fluctuating conditions, and re-evaluate decisions in case something goes wrong.
RFID-enabled farms can lessen this burden for farmers by automating the inspections and documenting accurate crop data more quickly. With RFID, modern farmers could still wear dungarees, but they will already spend far more time in front of a computer than walking through their livestock or fields. Data acquisition and input from RFID tags continue to be a critical enabler for increasing agricultural productivity.
3. Monitoring livestock for disease detection
Because the food production market is a global sector, livestock farmers are mandated to follow certain international rules and regulations, specifically pertaining to disease detection. RFID tags for livestock minimise the risk of overlooking and allowing the spread of diseases like Foot and Mouth or BSE among farm animals. Moreover, smart farming systems can automate various livestock inspection procedures, sending important information to regulators on demand.
Farmers can likewise automate a few labour-intensive tasks and keep their animals protected in case an outbreak occurs in a particular herd. With the help of RFID companies, it is now possible for farms to track exposure, generate analytics about their animals, and facilitate real-time traceability. So, when an outbreak does occur, a smart farm can immediately quarantine particular herds and lessen the effect of the disease on their livestock.
4. Recording climate data for better yields
A majority of agricultural products require ideal climates in order to grow in the field. Although industrial farming can help keep the climate under control, food producers also need to take into account the packaging, delivery, and storage of products all the time. With computer networks connected to RFID tags, farmers can analyse crops quickly, determine climate changes, and establish new parameters to ensure that products remain fresh from source to destination.
In addition, RFID inventory management systems help farmers keep accurate inventories, monitor crop growth, and forecast crop sizes ahead of time. Through the installation of RFID on transport vehicles, additional oversight can be obtained from the field to the plate of the consumer. With quite a lot of elements involved in the food supply chain, RFID gives farmers a unique ability to monitor and manage operations, ensure crop safety, and deliver fresh products to consumers on time.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that RFID has the ability to transform farming processes and reshape the future of food production. With excellent capabilities in smart farming and enhancing the livestock management industry, it is no surprise that RFID systems are changing the technological landscape of almost every industry, including the agricultural sector. Ultimately, using RFID in farming has enormous benefits, such as enhancing efficiency, generating more accurate product data, and organising processes for better productivity.
