Agricultural Informatics: Automation Using the IoT and Machine Learning

Despite the increasing population (the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates 70% more food will be needed in 2050 than was produced in 2006), issues related to food production have yet to be completely addressed. In recent years, Internet of Things technology has begun to be used to address different industrial and technical challenges to meet this growing need. These Agro-IoT tools boost productivity and minimize the pitfalls of traditional farming, which is the backbone of the world's economy. Aided by the IoT, continuous monitoring of fields provides useful and critical information to farmers, ushering in a new era in farming. The IoT can be used as a tool to combat climate change through greenhouse automation; monitor and manage water, soil and crops; increase productivity; control insecticides/pesticides; detect plant diseases; increase the rate of crop sales; cattle monitoring etc.

Agricultural Informatics: Automation Using the IoT and Machine Learning focuses on all these topics, including a few case studies, and they give a clear indication as to why these techniques should now be widely adopted by the agriculture and farming industries.

Amitava Choudhury PhD is an assistant professor in the school of Computer Science, University of Petroleum & Energy Studies, Dehradun, India.

Arindam Biswas PhD is an assistant professor in School of Mines and Metallurgy at Kazi Nazrul University, Asansol, West Bengal, India.

Manish Prateek PhD is Professor and Dean, School of Computer Science, at the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, India.

Amlan Chakrabarti PhD is a Full Professor in the A.K. Choudhury School of Information Technology at the University of Calcutta.