How farmers can tackle increasing climate risks through direct-to-device connectivity, by Andy Kessler, VP of Enterprise Land Mobile at Viasat

As extreme weather events become more frequent and intense across the world, farmers are seeking new ways to adapt and mitigate the impacts to their businesses.

Facing the driest start to spring in 69 years, farmers in the UK are already seeing an impact on crops, while poorly watered grazing land threatens to reduce livestock yields. At the other end of the scale, floods threaten to damage soil condition and risk pesticide leaks, with heavy rains causing a 19% drop in farmer’s income last year. All this change has a significant impact on food security, with the UK Government’s recent report underlining how severe weather is continuing to disrupt agricultural production.

In the face of such challenges, farmers are increasingly turning to Internet of Things (IoT) monitoring solutions and connected technologies to stay hyper aware of the condition of their land, from water levels down to the quality and structure of soil.

Yet, with many farms situated in remote areas with little to no cellular service, connectivity barriers are obstructing farmers from harnessing the full potential of IoT.

One potential solution lies with direct-to-device (D2D) connectivity; a technology enabling machinery to seamlessly switch between cellular and satellite networks enabling continuous connectivity and driving always-on monitoring and precision in the management of invaluable resources.

What’s more, D2D also promises to lower the barrier to IoT adoption, given lower cost hardware solutions to utilize such networks, empowering more of them with the solutions farmers need to adapt and thrive in this climate.

The connectivity barrier to IoT excellence in agriculture

While the agriculture sector leads the way in IoT, with an adoption rate of 94% compared to an average 88% across other major industries, there are still barriers to adoption. As shown in our latest annual IoT report, connectivity still remains a major hurdle for its successful implementation.

Where connectivity is constant and reliable, IoT-enabled monitoring technologies gather invaluable insights to which farmers can quickly respond.

However, without reliable connectivity, monitoring technologies cannot collect real-time data, nor can this data be harnessed to empower connected solutions. Although farmers are eager to invest in IoT, with the agricultural industry increasing its budget by 16% since 2021, the lack of connectivity coverage for remote deployment stands in the way.

As turbulent weather increasingly disrupts terrestrial networks, farmers face growing connectivity challenges that hinder their ability to operate effectively, putting further pressure on food-producing businesses.

Unlocking environmental awareness and refining resource management via D2D

D2D connectivity holds potentially game-changing potential for the agricultural industry, offering continuous connectivity between cellular and satellite networks.

Satellite connectivity already powers half of farmers’ agricultural IoT projects. Pairing such networks with cellular services plugs connectivity gaps, improving the accessibility and impact of IoT solutions for farms in more remote areas.

By enabling reliable connectivity across rural areas, D2D can improve environmental awareness by providing real-time data on soil quality. This unlocks accurate insights into soil conditions, ensuring farmers can quickly return their land to optimal quality following spells of both extreme dry and wet weather and optimise crop yields as a result.

D2D-enabled real-time data collection is also crucial to water management, whereby precise information on soil water levels can help farmers preserve valuable resources during droughts and prevent oversaturation following floods. For example, technology developed by Sensoterra can provide insight into soil moisture, optimising water and drought management.

Insights into soil mineral levels are also crucial to pesticide management, reducing wastage of costly chemicals and preventing leaching into local environments when water levels rise. Companies like MinFarm ensure that connected irrigation and pesticide distribution systems can respond to these insights and optimise conditions accordingly.  

With the agriculture industry often linked to more river pollution than water companies, monitoring and mitigating such risks is crucial to the protection of local environments, as well as supporting the industry’s wider reputation. Here, early warning systems, such as those provided by WorldSensing in the build-up to floods, will be integral to mitigating future leaching incidents.

Combating climate change with connected agriculture

By empowering farmers to collect a wealth of data over time, D2D connectivity enables them to build lasting strategies to best prepare for and recover from extreme weather events.

Connected agriculture technologies are set to revolutionise farming output and, thankfully, many of these solutions already exist and are ready to be supercharged by satellite connectivity.

Requiring constant connectivity to operate as intended, satellite-enabled D2D will unlock the full potential of these IoT solutions by ensuring consistent, comprehensive data for informed decision-making. This will empower farmers to maintain the land on which they build their livelihoods as effectively as possible, as they proactively mitigate climate risks and optimise resource management.

As extreme weather continues to disrupt agricultural output, mitigating and managing the climate’s impact is integral to both the longevity of farming and the huge growth in demand for food, with crop production required to feed 9.7 billion globally by 2050.

Projected to exceed USD 57 billion by 2032, the agri-tech market continues to develop innovative solutions set to transform operations. Breaking down connectivity barriers, satellite-powered D2D will be central to this, accelerating the deployment of IoT, enabling always-on machinery for the farms of the future, and fostering a more sustainable, resilient and efficient agriculture industry for all.