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INDUSTRY, TECHNOLOGY, PRODUCTS and INNOVATION you want to read about

Making a digital farm a working reality benefits expected. There are inherent practical
issues in agriculture that can impact solution
design, such as farm connectivity: the last and
How high-tech and the Internet of Things (IoT) can drive success in middle mile distances to get from a telecom’s
the fast-transforming agriculture sector in South Africa provider to the farm, and intra-site distances
within a farm from field to factory. High tech in
fields is valuable, but it requires careful planning
By Roger Hislop, board member at the IOT Industry Council (IOTIC) of South Africa and a focus on fitness for purpose.
The farmer needs reliable sensor data
griculture is a high-pressure industry. It has faced drought and floods, late rain and early rain. from field devices; it also needs for these
AClimate change is an ongoing threat – along with enormous economic and social upheaval. Agri devices to be cost-effective and easy to use,
has had to focus on innovation to achieve sustainable growth and provide for returns on investment plus they need end-to-end monitoring of
in an increasingly capital-intensive business. The bucolic vision of farming of yesteryear masks a high- IoT systems to ensure their telemetry and
pressure environment that requires high technology. This is the right time for farmers to adopt new control capability is reliable. As the tech costs
approaches and to examine how IoT and AgriTech can support their needs more effectively. continue to come down, and the capabilities
Several trends have a significant impact on the agricultural sector. Energy costs keep rising, of these systems continue to go up, high tech
self-generation of electricity is exploding, climate change is very real and everyone wants to reap the is becoming increasingly accessible to agri.
benefits of automation and intelligence. South Africa is already more expensive than every European What is still lacking is tech solution providers
country for electricity. Ninety two percent of self-generated electricity is produced from renewables designing products that talk directly to the
globally, of which 61% is solar (says the Economist Intelligence Unit), and according to our Department needs of this sector.
of Energy, we will see installed PV solar grow from 1.48 GW to 3.6 GW by 2026. This could reach 11 GW “Farms need local connectivity and
by 2030 – a third of Eskom’s current 35 GW of coal-fired capacity. compute on site, the right infrastructure and
Today, more farmers have tertiary agricultural qualifications than in the past, and more farms are intelligent tools that can help them optimise
being structured and resourced as businesses. Business structures must be institutionally investor- everything from moving pallets to saving
friendly, with centralised ownership and management across multiple farms. Hard numbers are energy,” concludes Hislop. This is what makes
not easy to come by, but are examined as VAT-paying registered business, while micro-farms (<R1m IoT such a rising star in the sector today.
turnover) are dwindling, small and medium farms (<R6m and <R10m) are holding steady and large It’s easy and quick to install, it leverages off
farms (>R10m) are growing in number, from 3 814 in 2009 to 5 135 by 2017. At the same time, the multiple connectivity options that can be
number of dairy farmers (for example) is falling, from 3500 in 2009 to just over a thousand today. customised to meet very specific location
Fewer farmers, more farming. requirements, and it’s safe and cost-effective.
Bad news for farming communities, good news for the economy: large farms in 2017 accounted for It’s a huge market for SA’s technology
67% of all agri revenues in South Africa, and 51% of all employment. solution providers that is almost untapped.
Agriculture as an industry is looking at inventive ways of building shareholder value while Remember those 8 to 10,000 medium and
developing new markets, all to capture the attention of the right investors to fund all this large farms? They need local connectivity
modernisation. Most professionalised farming concerns are realising the inherent value of technology and computing, with Wi-Fi between buildings
to improve efficiencies and operational management – and increasingly records and data management for computerisation. They need replicated
and are looking for solutions that can help them achieve measurable results with intelligent tools. server infrastructure with Cloud-synch
The Internet of Things (IoT) is increasingly invaluable to this sector, largely because systems have capabilities suitable to high cost/low bandwidth
come down so rapidly in cost and complexity. Today, IoT technology is easy to implement, flexible, and connectivity options.
very affordable. Farmers can use the technology to monitor temperature, humidity and soil moisture to They need IOT connectivity for devices
vastly improve land and stock outputs and potential. They can use granular measurement tools to dig within the farm – LoRaWAN, 6LOWPAN, MIOTY,
down into the management of livestock and machinery, with security system overlays to ensure that WiSUN, and other technologies, with Wi-Fi and
valuables are effectively tracked over vast distances. And they can use operational instrumentation to Ethernet backhaul.
monitor factors such as effective use (or even operator misuse) of farming systems as well as manage They need farming-centric business
energy (both fuel and electricity) much better. IoT has proven value across the three key tiers in the software. They need cloud application
farming of field and harvest management, packing and logistics and farm operations. integration expertise.
There are some important, agri-specific factors to consider, ensuring that any solution will deliver the Just taking a back-of-the-envelope
calculation for basic systems, we’re looking at a
R2-billion agri-focused tech services market. An
opportunity just waiting to be seized.
The future of the agriculture industry
rests in the hands of connected technology
systems – IOT and distributed computerised
systems. Not just because this ticks so many
productivity and automation boxes, but
because it can fundamentally shift many legacy
challenges around cost reduction, production
improvement, and long-term sustainability
without costing the farm that proverbial arm
and a leg.

EngineerIT | November 2021 | 47