Farming businesses are increasingly adopting solutions that allow them to operate autonomously and remotely in response to the pandemic, new research has found.
Respondents to the survey, including crop producers and livestock businesses, reported that Covid-19 had demonstrated the importance of the Internet of Things (IoT) to their businesses.
IoT refers to the billions of physical devices around the world that are now connected to the internet, and includes the use of data and robotics in enhancing farm productivity.
According to the research commissioned by satellite communications provider Inmarsat, adoption of such tech on farms has seen huge progress from 2020 to 2021.
Four-fifths (80%) of farmer respondents have now fully deployed at least one IoT project, with 53% having achieved this in the twelve month period from the second quarter of 2020.
Of the remaining 20% of respondents that have not yet adopted IoT in any form, all of them are either currently trialling it, or plan to deploy or trial at least one IoT project in the next two years.
But rural connectivity issues continue to hamper the rollout of agricultural IoT projects, according to the research.
Most respondents (72 percent) encountered connectivity problems during the trial or proof of concept phase of IoT.
Steven Tompkins, director of market development at Inmarsat, said that the farming sector had seen numerous challenges, particularly labour availability and supply chain impacts.
"As a result, agricultural businesses have either sped up deployment of IoT projects, or plan to do so in the next couple of years, with greater automation and cost savings being seen as the largest drivers.
"We have seen producers take on solutions that allow them to operate remotely, from autonomous irrigation control to the latest precision farming technologies, demonstrating increased faith in the technology.”
