Utilization of Internet of Things and Wireless Sensor Networks for Sustainable Smallholder Agriculture
Agriculture is the economy’s backbone for most developing countries. Most of these countries suffer from insufficient agricultural production. The availability of real-time, reliable and farm-specific information may significantly contribute to more sufficient and sustained production. Typically, su...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-04-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/22/9/3273 |
| _version_ | 1827671415944380416 |
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| author | Amsale Zelalem Bayih Javier Morales Yaregal Assabie Rolf A. de By |
| author_facet | Amsale Zelalem Bayih Javier Morales Yaregal Assabie Rolf A. de By |
| author_sort | Amsale Zelalem Bayih |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Agriculture is the economy’s backbone for most developing countries. Most of these countries suffer from insufficient agricultural production. The availability of real-time, reliable and farm-specific information may significantly contribute to more sufficient and sustained production. Typically, such information is usually fragmented and often does fit one-on-one with the farm or farm plot. Automated, precise and affordable data collection and dissemination tools are vital to bring such information to these levels. The tools must address details of spatial and temporal variability. The Internet of Things (IoT) and wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are useful technology in this respect. This paper investigates the usability of IoT and WSN for smallholder agriculture applications. An in-depth qualitative and quantitative analysis of relevant work over the past decade was conducted. We explore the type and purpose of agricultural parameters, study and describe available resources, needed skills and technological requirements that allow sustained deployment of IoT and WSN technology. Our findings reveal significant gaps in utilization of the technology in the context of smallholder farm practices caused by social, economic, infrastructural and technological barriers. We also identify a significant future opportunity to design and implement affordable and reliable data acquisition tools and frameworks, with a possible integration of citizen science. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T03:41:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-057a80cbe4f74f37afbc0f4c5c852c6f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T03:41:37Z |
| publishDate | 2022-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-057a80cbe4f74f37afbc0f4c5c852c6f2023-11-23T09:16:01ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202022-04-01229327310.3390/s22093273Utilization of Internet of Things and Wireless Sensor Networks for Sustainable Smallholder AgricultureAmsale Zelalem Bayih0Javier Morales1Yaregal Assabie2Rolf A. de By3Department of Geo-Information Processing, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AA Enschede, The NetherlandsDepartment of Geo-Information Processing, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AA Enschede, The NetherlandsDepartment of Computer Science, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa P.O. Box 1176, EthiopiaDepartment of Geo-Information Processing, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AA Enschede, The NetherlandsAgriculture is the economy’s backbone for most developing countries. Most of these countries suffer from insufficient agricultural production. The availability of real-time, reliable and farm-specific information may significantly contribute to more sufficient and sustained production. Typically, such information is usually fragmented and often does fit one-on-one with the farm or farm plot. Automated, precise and affordable data collection and dissemination tools are vital to bring such information to these levels. The tools must address details of spatial and temporal variability. The Internet of Things (IoT) and wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are useful technology in this respect. This paper investigates the usability of IoT and WSN for smallholder agriculture applications. An in-depth qualitative and quantitative analysis of relevant work over the past decade was conducted. We explore the type and purpose of agricultural parameters, study and describe available resources, needed skills and technological requirements that allow sustained deployment of IoT and WSN technology. Our findings reveal significant gaps in utilization of the technology in the context of smallholder farm practices caused by social, economic, infrastructural and technological barriers. We also identify a significant future opportunity to design and implement affordable and reliable data acquisition tools and frameworks, with a possible integration of citizen science.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/22/9/3273Internet of Thingswireless sensor networkaffordable digital data infrastructuretechnology assist in smallholder data acquisitionsmart agriculture |
| spellingShingle | Amsale Zelalem Bayih Javier Morales Yaregal Assabie Rolf A. de By Utilization of Internet of Things and Wireless Sensor Networks for Sustainable Smallholder Agriculture Sensors Internet of Things wireless sensor network affordable digital data infrastructure technology assist in smallholder data acquisition smart agriculture |
| title | Utilization of Internet of Things and Wireless Sensor Networks for Sustainable Smallholder Agriculture |
| title_full | Utilization of Internet of Things and Wireless Sensor Networks for Sustainable Smallholder Agriculture |
| title_fullStr | Utilization of Internet of Things and Wireless Sensor Networks for Sustainable Smallholder Agriculture |
| title_full_unstemmed | Utilization of Internet of Things and Wireless Sensor Networks for Sustainable Smallholder Agriculture |
| title_short | Utilization of Internet of Things and Wireless Sensor Networks for Sustainable Smallholder Agriculture |
| title_sort | utilization of internet of things and wireless sensor networks for sustainable smallholder agriculture |
| topic | Internet of Things wireless sensor network affordable digital data infrastructure technology assist in smallholder data acquisition smart agriculture |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/22/9/3273 |
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