From an early age, people knew that the health of crops was directly related to weather. Since crops are sensitive to low temperatures, heavy rains, thunderstorms, etc., bad weather conditions can be detrimental to the agricultural sector.
In the past, people have relied on their beliefs in superstitions like rituals, but fortunately today humanity found a more effective way to handle the problem.
New technologies are available to protect crops against bad weather conditions. One of these is artificial intelligence (AI), which provides forecasts that help farmers protect their fields from heavy rain or hail.
While we cannot completely change the climate for the desired environment for crops, Artificial Intelligence (AI) can still offer viable solutions that are transforming the practice of agriculture.
Today, specifically, we will talk about how farms can protect their crops from bad weather with the help of Machine Learning (ML) and AI.
Weather monitoring using IoT
IoT stands for Internet of Things, which includes all devices that are connected to each other, communicating and exchanging information with their sensors.
IoT sensors are a perfect solution for weather monitoring. One might think that these devices are not necessary as you can easily tell what the weather is like with the naked eye, however, the truth is that IoT devices measure details about the weather that can go unnoticed by a normal person.
Yes, we can tell if it is getting cloudy, but IoT sensors monitor live details, such as temperature, humidity, CO levels, wind speed and direction, air pressure, etc.
All this data is sent to farmers for analysis and strategic decisions that are not based on a hunch. Thus, farmers will be able to prevent over or under watering, have vivid and accurate information on crop diseases, and more importantly, can take timely precautions such as covering and protecting crops in case weather conditions worsen.
Weather prediction with AI
When IoT and AI are put to work together, great things can happen. One of those things is predicting the weather. How exactly?
Available weather data from your IoT sensors can be fed into artificial intelligence algorithms, and together with analytics, statistics, and machine learning algorithms, you can get an upcoming weather forecast.
However, the more data there is, the more accurate the predictions will be, so you will also need to obtain historical weather data from other sources.
Weather forecasting is nothing new, however, by improving the process with AI algorithms, more accurate predictions are obtained. In fact, a recent research showed that the artificial intelligence system can give up to a year ahead of the weather forecast with maximum precision.
Conclusion
Climate has a serious impact on agriculture and food supply and with a growing demand for affordable, healthy and quality food, farmers are forced to seek innovative solutions and minimize risks related to agriculture.
Along with AI-powered automation tools, solutions like IoT weather monitoring and AI weather forecasting help farmers break through limitations and get the most accurate information.
Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning enable farmers to understand potentially dangerous weather conditions ahead, as well as current crop health state, such as their water level, overall temperature or humidity, which would otherwise be nearly impossible to detect.
If you want your farm operations to run smoothly, then you need to be proactive rather than reactive. Schedule a free consultation call with us and let’s discuss how we can make sure your crops stay healthy and safe.
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