How Cloud Computing is Reshaping the Agriculture Industry

Companies have an option of using IT infrastructures without building, maintaining, and even owning them. They can do that through pay-as-you-go services from cloud providers. Some of the services they can access through this option are storage, computing capacity, and databases. These possibilities were not initially available for small and medium-level businesses.

Agriculture is one of the sectors that has benefited from cloud computing applications. This is an appropriate marriage between the latest invention and the oldest sector. Technology is crucial in agriculture because of increased population, limited farmland, unfertile soil, and climate change.

The article highlights how cloud computing has transformed agriculture.

Cloud Computing Applications in Agriculture

Crop management

Experts collect data on crops that farmers have been growing in recent years to provide them with the insights that guide them on what to plant next.

They also get weather data of a specific region and weather forecasts for future periods. Farmers can make crop-related decisions based on the cloud computing data they receive.

Soil information

Analysts provide soil profiles as part of soil information. They use historical patterns of soil to forecast future trends. Soil experts evaluate soil acidity and alkalinity, changes in the soil quality and composition. So cloud computing is used to store and analyze soil information.

Tracking Growth

The growth of different crops is controlled in various regions and at regular intervals. Such a process provides a comparison of the present growth trends and the previous growth patterns. The analytics is applicable to stored data in order to avail growth tracking insights.

Local Farmer’s Information

Authorities use cloud computing to store farmers’ data, which includes crop type, lands, yield, and required help. Such information is useful for future strategies and better resource allocation.

Further, the technology provides solutions to the common challenges farmers encounter. This is made possible by the quick response time from experts. They can provide solutions through cloud computing platforms such as Telemedicine. On the other hand, farmers can access these solutions through their websites and apps.

Ecommerce

For many years farmers in the rural areas have not been able to sell their produce directly to the consumer because of middlemen, which has led to farmers being exploited in the process. However, technology such as cloud technology helps farmers to sell directly to retailers and consumers. This is possible due to a cloud computing-enabled agricultural management information system. The web-based information system provides farmers with up-to-date information about the market, sowing crops, weather, fertilizer, and much more.

Further, experts and scientists in the agriculture research station can now share their recommendations and discoveries about conventional agricultural techniques and fertilizer in the cloud.

Future Farms

Cloud-based technology is still developing, but so far, it is helping farmers nurture their crops the same way doctors treat their patients. Instead of viewing farmers as a homogenous field of crops, they will see an individual plant.

Experts recommend using cloud-based mobile applications, machine learning, artificial intelligence, computer vision, and other automated driving technologies. Indeed, data is an integral part of this landscape, and the goal is to help farmers double their yields and farm better.