India is rapidly developing in every sector due to technological advancements and youth focusing on solutions for various issues of Indian society. Among numerous technologies on lead, Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the revolutionary technologies representing the future of communication and computing. It has entered into every field to bring smartness in the activities such as smart cities, smart homes, intelligent traffic control, smart farming, and so forth. As its area of implementation is vast, it can be implemented and deployed in each field. Food and agriculture can be one of the examples of a successful application of IoT as it provides better management of farming activities. The optimisation of resources offered by advanced technologies increases productivity and profitability while reducing agricultural wastage.
Smart farming in India looks promising to reduce hunger as India is home to the largest number of hungry people worldwide. About 200 million people within India are food insecure that has a serious, 31.4, food security situation. India stands on 100th position out of 119 ranked countries in food insecurity as per the Global Hunger Index, 2017. Majority of Indian farmers are below the poverty line and thus struggle to feed their own basic needs of livelihoods that includes food too! The Government of India is now focusing on improving farmer’s income such that they will be able to fulfil their and family needs. For this, the Indian government is currently developing a financial budget to advance entire agricultural and food value chain. It is encouraging the startup ecosystem for research and development of modern technology that will be affordable for Indian people.
India is one of the top countries hosting agritech startups. Within a decade, more than 400 agricultural startups have started in India Major farmers in India hold small farmlands and IoT in agriculture India will enable farmers to use this robust and flexible technology to improve their farming. Though the development of IoT-enabled agricultural technology is in the initial stage, smart farming in India will soon be a reality. There are challenges in the development, but one of the significant challenges is the farmer’s acceptance as Indian agriculture is mostly done with conventional techniques and methods. Farmers are reluctant to experiment in their farms are their lands are small, investments are enormous as compared to returns and in that the fear of failure and bearing economic losses is high. IoT in agriculture India will be a solution to all these challenges once it is deployed in full fledge.