'IoT set to fuel agriculture', says Inmarsat
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'IoT set to fuel agriculture', says Inmarsat

Inmarsat says that the internet of things (IoT) will play an increasingly important role in helping the agriculture sector become more efficient, productive and sustainable.

Following a series of findings from its The Future of IoT in Enterprise – 2017 report, Inmarsat says and spending on and interest in, IoT is set to increase over the next five years within the area of agritech.

According to findings 62% of companies in the sector have already fully or partially deployed IoT-based solutions with a further 27% to do the same in over the next six months.

Commenting on the data, Ayan Jobse-Alkemade, director of sector development agriculture at Inmarsat Enterprise, said: “With the planet estimated to reach a population of 10 billion people by 2050, humanity will face challenges with sustainable water sources, food production, and the best use of land to get the maximum yield from crops. Additionally, using the most efficient method to deliver the resources will increasingly feature on the global agenda. In short, farmers, with the help of the agritech sector, need to get smarter, leaner and faster from field to fork.

Additionally, the results indicate that IoT-based solutions are set to increase dramatically over the next few years. Also in today’s agriculture industry 5% of agritech businesses’ IT budgets are spent on IoT technology; a figure that is expected to more than double to around 12 per cent by 2022.

Other findings from the report include data that says that connectivity is the biggest roadblock to IoT, it also identified that nearly half of enterprise businesses lack the technical skills needed for successful IoT project deployments

Inmarsat says that with its L-band network that enables global satellite connectivity with up to 99.9% uptime, IoT projects can operate, even in the most remote and hostile environments.

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