The Future of Agriculture: Embracing Connectivity for Growth and Sustainability

The agriculture industry is on the brink of a major transformation, with the potential to add over $500 billion to the global gross domestic product by 2030 through enhanced connectivity. As the world’s population grows and demand for food increases, the industry is facing challenges such as land constraints, rising input costs, and environmental pressures. To address these challenges and unlock new opportunities, agriculture must embrace a digital transformation enabled by data and connectivity.

Advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, analytics, and connected sensors are poised to revolutionize agriculture by increasing yields, improving resource efficiency, and building sustainability and resilience across crop cultivation and animal husbandry. However, the success of these technologies hinges on the availability of a solid connectivity infrastructure.

Currently, only about one-quarter of farms in the United States use connected equipment or devices, and the technology being used is not state-of-the-art. To fully realize the potential of connectivity in agriculture, more sophisticated digital tools and advanced connectivity technologies like LPWAN, 5G, and LEO satellites are needed.

By leveraging connectivity, agriculture can unlock new capabilities such as precision irrigation, livestock monitoring, building and equipment management, drone farming, and autonomous machinery. These use cases have the potential to generate significant value, with crop monitoring alone projected to unlock $130 billion to $175 billion in value by 2030.

The industry must overcome two significant obstacles: developing the necessary infrastructure to enable connectivity in farming and making strong business cases for the adoption of digital tools. Collaboration among industry players, input providers, telcos, and agritech companies will be essential in driving the necessary investment and innovation.

As agriculture embraces advanced connectivity, new players have the opportunity to enter the space and unlock new pockets of value. Telcos, input providers, and agritech companies can play a crucial role in developing connectivity infrastructure and offering innovative solutions to farmers.

Overall, the successful deployment of advanced connectivity in agriculture is a critical undertaking with over $500 billion in value at stake. Those who embrace this technology transformation early on may be best positioned to thrive in agriculture’s connectivity-driven future.