IoT for agriculture use cases: Oizom monitors soil irrigation for healthier crops

2019/07/24 Innoverview Read

Ahmedabad-based Oizom – a provider of environmental IoT solutions – is leveraging Semtech Corporation’s LoRa devices and Tata Communications’ LoRaWAN-based networking infrastructure for its new Agribot smart agriculture solution, which is designed to offer farmers real-time insight into the health of their crops by monitoring soil conditions, including humidity and pH levels.

The LoRa-based sensors in the Agribot help farmers to make smarter decisions in the irrigation of their crops and improving crop yield. According to Oizom CTO, Sohil Patel, the LoRa-based Agribot sensor is not at all difficult to install and helps farmer even in areas without a cellular coverage.

Marc Pegulu, vice president of IoT for Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group, said: “Semtech’s LoRa devices provide the proven feature set necessary for real-time data monitoring and long range Cloud connectivity, making it the optimal IoT solution for smart agriculture applications. With LoRa devices and the LoRaWAN protocol’s proven capabilities, Oizom is able to accelerate a product to market quickly while capturing a wide range of soil data in a variety of environmental temperatures.”

In May, IoT News interviewed Hello Tractor CEO Jehiel Oliver. Oliver spoke about how his company is revolutionising agriculture, particularly in emerging markets. The firm connects tractor owners with farmers who typically undertake slow, manual work in hot and laborious conditions with fewer yields than counterparts in more developed markets with access to proper machinery.

“IoT is woven throughout our technology stack and it adds a tremendous amount of value both to the tractor owners and also the farmers that need to locate and book tractor services,” said Oliver.

Last year, Australian carrier National Narrowband Network Co (NNNCo) deployed a publicly available network based on the LoRaWAN protocol that leveraged Semtech’s LoRa devices and technology to build IoT applications. The network was rolled out with Australian agriculture company Goanna Ag, with an aim to bring smarter irrigation management solutions to Australian cotton growers.

(Copywrite: IOT NEWS https://www.iottechnews.com/news/2019/jul/22/iot-agriculture-use-cases-oizom-monitors-soil-irrigation-healthier-crops/)