Internet of Things Ushers Precision Farming In The Philippines
Who says agriculture is a low-tech enterprise?
Not conglomerate Calata Corp., which has partnered with Austrian firm Pessl Instruments GmbH to sow the seed of the cutting-edge Internet of Things (IoT) in Philippine farming, reports Angel Palpal-Iatoc and Ronnel W. Domingo on the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The partners will invest in an instrument that provides very localized weather forecasting, the iMetos weather station. This means precision forecasting, unlike the weather information provided by news reports.
The project aims to provide Filipino farmers intelligence-based farming to improve decision-making across the entire supply chain by providing real-time field data. The partners call this “agricultural IoT.”
IoT is an ecosystem where common objects are connected, communicating with users and one another by exchanging data. The objects may be wristbands or watches, smartphones, home appliances, cars and even heavy equipment.
IoT applications are now making headway in the maritime industry (vessels connected to land bases), mining (remote equipment telling the home office when they need maintenance) and healthcare (remote monitoring of a patient).
“The Filipino farmer is still farming the old-fashioned way,” says Joseph Calata, president of Calata Corp. “We take it as a responsibility to modernize the face of Filipino farming.”
Read the full story on the Philippine Daily Inquirer.