We’ve all heard the drumbeat declaring that the Internet of Things is the next great technological revolution. IoT is expected to make the production process more efficient, reduce waste and resource consumption, improve customer service, and provide a wide range of new products and services that will change the way we all live and work.

It’s already impacting manufacturing, retail, utilities, and a myriad of other industries looking to leapfrog into the next big thing.

It may come as a surprise to some, but of all the industries investing in and adopting IoT (Internet of Things) technology, the most prolific may in fact be the agricultural industry. Farmers have been very eager to adopt the IoT and have already seen significant success.

There are a number of reasons for this:

Ease of implementation

Inexpensive sensors placed in various parts of a cultivated field can quickly generate very useful actionable data, whereas in an industrial setting adoption would require modifying or disrupting existing networks and software systems.

instant value

Pre-existing precision farming metrics can be applied more easily, maximizing the already known benefits of established practices (knowing what types of crops to plant, when, knowing when and how much to irrigate, etc.). Farmers have also been successful in controlling pests safely and naturally through the intelligent release of pheromones. Of course, there is the obvious and very tangible benefit of decreased resource consumption and increased performance.

continuous value

In agricultural IoT deployments, the same practices that provide instant value will continue to provide value as long as they are employed. Water conservation and waste reduction provide repeat value, as does the increased yield that precision agriculture provides.

Early adopters have mainly been large commercial farms, but smaller farms are finding ways to take advantage of sensor data and remote monitoring to make incremental improvements to their yields as well. In fact, IoT may eventually serve as a compensating factor of sorts allowing smaller food producers to compete with larger commercial producers.

So IoT is not only revitalizing an essential industry, but it has the potential to solve some very serious problems related to food shortages and ever-growing populations. This, of course, is in addition to reducing the environmental impact of farming and returning the family farm to the global marketplace.

That’s not bad for technology that many people think is confusing and consider a lot of “hype”, right?