Ten percent of Americans still lack broadband access, and 39% of those without access reside in rural areas. But connectivity is a necessity for all areas of modern life. And even though the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is working tirelessly to increase access through deployment programs and funding, people living in rural areas continue to bear the consequences of limited connectivity options.
One industry heavily affected by the lack of rural broadband is agriculture. Most of our food is grown in rural areas, and with the global population expected to reach almost 10 billion by 2050, farmers will need to produce 50% more food. Farmers are extraordinarily tech-savvy and use machines equipped with robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), sensors and more to execute precise tasks at scale. These critical technology applications need connectivity to produce the best results. Increasing rural connectivity provides farmers with more accurate data, faster analytics and insights and a more efficient and sustainable growing cycle to provide food, fuel and fiber for a growing population.
Why do farmers need connectivity?
The typical farm is the size roughly of 4,000 football fields and often grows more than 750 million plants. That’s 750 million individual microenvironments to care for. The only way a farmer can provide precise care to each of these plants is with connectivity. Thanks to today’s GPS networks, agriculture machines have geospatial awareness to know exactly where they are in a field. This allows for automated driving and onboard connectivity to perform specific actions beyond human capacity with robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT).
For example, connectivity enables large, smart machines to steer themselves (with a farmer in the cab) and place seeds in the ground at the perfect depth and spacing for optimal growth. It’s also helping with other jobs that have changed over time. Where farmers once pre-planned the exact amount of herbicides they’d need to treat a field, it’s now less predictable because computer vision helps them target-spray only weeds instead of mass-spraying the entire field. The trade-off between reduced herbicide usage and predictability is one the farmer doesn’t have to make if they have persistent connectivity. Connectivity enables them to monitor how much herbicide is in the machine’s tank and alert team members if they need more resources in-the-moment.
With all these different tasks and decisions happening at once, the last thing a farmer needs is machine downtime. Farmers typically use several machines for any given task, and each has an important job to do. Downtime on just one machine can make or break a season, costing farmers thousands of dollars per hour per vehicle. However, with connectivity, farmers can link their machines to monitoring software and applications to proactively update, monitor, diagnose, and optimize machine functions. Like any other vehicle, agriculture machines need regular maintenance for peak performance, and connectivity helps farmers and their dealers identify potential issues and schedule repair time before they result in a complete breakdown.
More connectivity means more productivity and flexibility on the farm
But this is just the start of connectivity use cases on the farm. The agriculture industry is exploring satellite connectivity to enhance current offerings and bring new technological solutions to the farm, like machine-to-machine communication and autonomy.
Think back to the size of a typical farm — roughly 4,000 football fields. During busy parts of the year, a farmer may not have enough staff to run the optimal number of machines to work this much land, which sometimes means an 18-hour workday. However, with satellite connectivity, a farmer can use machine-to-machine communication to help machines “talk” to each other. For example, planters can send data to tell another planter where seeds are already placed and minimize duplicated work. This saves money and time for the most productive workday possible. And each productive workday leads to a more successful harvest at the end of the season.
With satellite connectivity, farmers can do more than just predictive maintenance; they can choose to connect with other farmers, dealers or trusted advisors in real-time to remotely diagnose and fix machine issues. Think of this as screen-sharing for a tractor. Farmers can also use this remote monitoring technology to adjust machine settings from anywhere. Instead of checking each machine’s progress in person, a farmer can monitor their operations from their smartphone in real time and change settings like speed while they are in a different field, the office or spend some of the 18-hour workday with their kids or grandkids. This gives them a deeper understanding of their operations and the flexibility to work beyond the field.
Automated machines have been self-steering for decades, but some agriculture equipment is now fully autonomous. But full autonomy depends heavily on data and data processing to operate. An automated tractor processes thousands of images in milliseconds to understand its surroundings and operate safely in the field. Farmers can also view this data through an app. With the constant connectivity and data sharing satellite connectivity will provide, a farmer can start and stop the machine, monitor the job at hand and determine from anywhere what to do if a machine encounters an obstacle. This frees up more time for strategic decision-making, like working with an advisor to look at the data and plan the next season’s crop.
A more connected world to meet global demand
Farmers have always been great record-keepers and decision-makers, but they can be even more successful with satellite connectivity. Especially as technology solutions like AI and autonomy enhance agriculture machines, satellite connectivity will enable machines to handle this increased processing and seamlessly integrate with the cloud. These persistent connections will also ensure farmers have the most up-to-date data on their operations. Farming is a business, and farmers are the CEO and CTO of their farms. They rely on technology and data to get the job done and help each season provide a bigger yield than the last. It’s not just for the farmers’ benefit — satellite connectivity benefits us all — something to think about the next time you’re at the grocery store.
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