Today, agriculture operations have reached new levels thanks to increasing technology and the amount of data available from the field to farmers. But how can they keep monitoring and tracking their assets in remote areas when connectivity is not available? And how can satellite IoT optimise precision farming? 

Increasing yield, productivity and crop quality are top priorities for every farmer in a world driven by performance and competitiveness. Farmers must be able to predict their yield even before the first lamb is born or the first seed sprouts.

AgTech, made possible by IoT technology, opens a wide range of applications from smart crop and livestock monitoring, to drone farming, autonomous-farming machinery or predictive maintenance. Tracking beehives, knowing a silo level, and controlling irrigation and soil moisture are some of the direct applications made possible by smart usage of data from the field. According to the American Farm Bureau and Spirent Communications, a tank level monitoring solution for feedstock can help reduce the cost of seed, fertilizer, and pesticides up to 15%, while decreasing water usage by 75%.

Precision farming has become so important in today’s world that analysts expect the market to reach US$32.75B by 2027.

Today, nearly 80% of organisations in the agriculture sector have fully deployed at least one IoT project, up from 22% in 2018. Based on research, the main drivers identified for that growth include greater automation, cost efficiency, greater supply chain insight, improved environmental sustainability, and better decision making.

However, data from the field becomes useless if farmers don’t have a reliable way to access it, as 60% of farmers experienced difficulties in deploying IoT precisely because of a lack of connectivity in areas where they wanted to implement it.

IoT services via satellite-based infrastructures, also known as SatIoT, are about solving that problem by extending the connectivity reach from 15% world coverage with terrestrial networks to 100%.

By tracking, monitoring, and communicating with assets anywhere, SatIoT is the best solution to keep remote assets close to headquarters. Astrocast brings the best of terrestrial and satellite networks by making SatIoT services affordable to everyone.

If you are one of these farmers or agricultural organisations, you can now remotely track the health of your herds and fields, giving you the insight you need to better plan and manage your operations. Picture a world where you can perform virtual check-ups throughout the day, and receive just the critical metrics you need from the field, at a price point that makes sense.

Out of each ear tag, you can check the temperature, the whereabouts, identify which animals are close together, or know when it is time for calving. Knowing these precious parameters can also help you eradicate diseases by removing only the infected animals.

More than that, thanks to Astrocast’s bidirectionality feature, you can send a command back to your silos to release food, open far gates or turn on and off irrigation systems.

More recently, Astrocast is partnering with Digitanimal, a leading smart solutions developer in livestock tracking devices and solutions. Together, they are integrating Astrocast’s low-powered, cost-effective Satellite IoT into Digitanimal’s IoT tracking device to develop an IoT solution for farmers willing to adopt Agriculture 4.0 farming practices anywhere in the world, and help them to remotely better manage their herds.

Register your interest to get updates about the new Satellite IoT animal tracker available during autumn 2023.

Astrocast is a game changer for AgTech, and is proud to contribute towards two of the UN’s and ESA’s Sustainable Development Goals: Responsible Consumption and Production (Goal 12), as well as enhancing Life on Land (Goal 15).

To take your IoT strategy further and extend your precision farming strategy, discover Astrocast’s flexible SatIoT service by joining the Astropreneur Programs today.