“GPS services, sensors and big data, will all become essential farming tools in the coming years and are clearly set to revolutionise agriculture,” added Romeo.

All this innovation goes under the generic name of precision agriculture, and the results can be game-changing. Greater precision leads to higher yields from the same or smaller resources, creating environmental sustainability. It also allows for much more reliable production and yields, which in turn enables greater management of demand. Although cost, unpredictable weather events and a demanding and changing legislative environment are some of the challenges facing agriculture, on the other hand economic, business and technological factors are driving adoption of smart farming.

“Whilst precision agriculture cannot solve all the problems, it can help farmers control aspects of farming better and optimise results, as well as provide real time information at a level of granularity not previously possible,” explained Dr Therese Cory, Senior Analyst at Beecham Research and co-author of the report. “This enables better, more accurate decisions to be made and results in less waste and maximum efficiency in operations. This particularly matters in an industry where margins can be tight, and savings of a few percent can amount to a great deal of money and precious resources.”

The report identifies some of the main challenges and activities where smart farming will have the most impact including: fleet management of farm vehicles, arable farming, monitoring livestock, indoor farming and greenhouses, fish farming, forestry, storage and water monitoring.

Beecham Research also sees sensor-based technologies and decision support systems playing a vital role in the postharvest supply chain. This includes the detection of food fraud, dealing with bacterial and other contamination, mitigating spoilage and food waste, cold chain monitoring and meeting the growing need for traceability from farm to the consumer.

“Precision agriculture can help reduce significant losses in farming, solve problems of data collection and monitoring and reduce the impacts of climate change. In the long term, we have no choice but to invest in the use of precision agriculture and smart farming because of the urgency of the problems the world faces,” concludes Saverio Romeo.