Internet of Things (IoT) in digital agriculture: An overview

Climate change, land degradation, and limited land and water resources have challenged our ability to meet the food demand of a rapidly growing population. To tackle this challenge, modern agricultural systems are relying on new technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) to improve agricultural productivity and resource use efficiency. Although IoT has gained considerable attention in the last few years, the key concepts of IoT and their applicability across different domains of agriculture are still new to many researchers, practitioners, managers, and policymakers. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of the use of different IoT platforms, wireless sensor networks, and other associated technologies like remote sensing, cloud computing, and big data analytics in digital agriculture. The review also explores the use of communication technologies, microcontrollers, and machine learning in smart irrigation and decision support systems. The necessity of interoperability (data transfer and communication without human interference) among devices is discussed in detail with regard to facilitating and exchanging agricultural data more effectively. The discussion also includes opportunities and challenges in standardizing IoT; developing energy-efficient and affordable technologies; and improving data collection, transfer, storage, processing, security, anonymity, and privacy. This paper further calls for collaborative research in sensor and communication technologies in the agricultural sector.