More developed industries, connected vehicles, smart cities are all an indispensable part of the IoT world. However, IoT applications used in agriculture have the potential to have a greater global impact. Smart farming system based on IoT technologies will help farmers reduce waste and increase productivity by calculating everything from the amount of diesel oil burned by farm vehicles to the amount of fertilizer and water used in the soil.

What Is Smart Farming?

Smart farming using IoT can find solutions with analytical approaches to problems in traditional agriculture. Similarly, smart farming is an application that uses modern and high technology, which increases the quantity and quality of agricultural products in a sustainable manner. With the use of smart farming technologies, farmers have access to GPS technology, water, light, humidity and temperature management, automatic irrigation, precision fertilization, data management and the use of technology in many different areas. Thus, both more products can be obtained and the necessary nutrients will be provided for the urban population which will approach 7 billion.

Smart farming solutions are becoming increasingly common. The Internet of Things (IoT) general uses in smart farming are briefly:

  • Tracking of agricultural vehicles,
  • Tracking of farm animals,
  • Indoor cultivation,
  • Fish farming,
  • Protection of forest areas,
  • Management of water and fuel tanks.

Smart Farming IoT Applications

There are many different smart farming IoT applications that can be used in agriculture:

The Most Popular Smart Farming System: Monitoring of Climate Conditions and Precision Farming

Weather stations combining various intelligent agricultural sensors are a very popular smart farming system. Weather stations in the field collect various data from the environment and send it to the cloud. The data collected can be used to map climatic conditions, select appropriate crops and take the necessary measures to increase their capacity. In other words, sensitive farming is an application that makes farming procedures more accurate and controlled for the breeding of animals or crops. Information technology, sensors, autonomous vehicles, control systems, etc. substances are key components used in this approach. Precision farming is one of IoT’s most popular applications in the agricultural sector. It is a process that increases profitability, financial efficiency and water usage efficiency in irrigated crop areas. For this reason, many organizations around the world have started to use this technique.

Monitoring of Climate Conditions and Precision Farming
Monitoring of Climate Conditions and Precision Farming

A Technique That Enhances the Yield of Crops: Smart Greenhouses

Greenhouse farming is a technique that increases the yield of vegetables, fruits and plants. Manual control of the environmental parameters in the greenhouse means production loss, energy loss and labor costs. With smart farming using IoT, a greenhouse not only monitors but also controls the climate. The need for human intervention is eliminated. In addition to obtaining environmental data, weather stations automatically adjust conditions to match parameters. Different sensors are used to measure environmental parameters according to the needs of the plant. A cloud server connects to the system using IoT and provides remote access. The cloud server helps process data in the greenhouse and performs control. This design offers farmers the most cost-effective solutions with virtually no manual intervention.

Smart Greenhouses
Smart Greenhouses

Bird’s-Eye View Make a Difference: Agricultural Drones

An agricultural plane is an unmanned vehicle used to track your products. It can be used to making greater crop yields. It gives a detailed picture of the areas with digital imaging techniques.

The use of drones in smart agriculture allows farmers to obtain more accurate information. Problems such as harmful insects and irrigation problems can be detected earlier thanks to drones. Dissimilarities between healthy and diseased plants may not be clearly visible to farmers. However, the infrared views provided by the drones allow immediate detection of many problems.

Farmers can accurately identify the problem in a particular region by flying an agricultural drone over their crops. This shortens the time taken to identify the problem. Drones can also be used for monitoring livestock, for monitoring plants and pathogens. Drones can remove soil characteristics and make recommendations by identifying the most suitable seed for the farmer.

Agricultural Drones
Agricultural Drones

For Healthy and Profitable Farms: Livestock Monitoring and Management

Smart farming technologies enable farmers to collect data on the location, welfare and health of cattle. It allows you to make quick decisions such as finding and separating sick animals from the herd and preventing the spread of the disease to all cattle. All kinds of animal disease monitoring, annual milk and meat production, drug use and costs, vaccination scheme, such as data analysis is performed effectively in many operations. IoT applications allow farmers to collect data on the location, welfare and health of cattle or poultry. Sensors, measuring devices and tracking devices integrated into intelligent farm technologies enable the conversion to efficient, healthy and profitable digital farms. 7/24 feeding and ruminating times are analyzed in the data collected with smart tracking devices according to the size of the farm. With the support of artificial intelligence, early disease detection is made and early intervention is provided. Processes such as the most efficient cattle activity and the most appropriate fertilization timing are determined. The benefits of farm monitoring and management can be summarized as follows:

  • Reducing costs by placing cattle easily,
  • Warning when animals are out of range,
  • Early warning to IoT platform in case of theft or loss,
  • Animal movements can be monitored and associated with specific behaviors.
Livestock Monitoring and Management
Livestock Monitoring and Management

An Application that Changes the Agricultural Industry: Crop Management

Crop management devices, such as meteorological stations, are placed on the field to collect field-specific data. It collects data such as temperature, precipitation, leaf water potential, water level, crop health and pest inflow.

  • Collect data to plan optimal harvest effectively.
  • Weather forecasts are used to optimize productivity and measures are taken to reduce the likelihood of crop damage.
  • Pest behavior is predicted and can be checked before plants are affected.
  • Crop irrigation requirements are analyzed and waste is reduced. Resources are used in a sustainable manner.


Smart farming IoT applications and digital ideas enable farmers to control crop requirements. Plant growth can be accurately predicted. This concept will help to reach new heights, accelerate the business in the agricultural sector and make it more profitable. A smartphone enables the farmer to control agricultural land at any time and anywhere in the world using IoT. IoT technology can reduce costs and increase the efficiency of traditional farming. The success of such projects depends on the awareness of the farmers. However, considering the advantages of the system, it is believed that this awareness can be easily created. Farmers should be informed and the latest technologies in the agricultural sector should be introduced.

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Smart Farming Iot Applications

With the new generation smart agriculture application iot, which combines the agricultural sector with technology, agriculture will become more powerful.