Role of IoT Technology in Agriculture: A Systematic Literature Review

TLDR

Growing food demand drives industrialization and intensification in agriculture, and IoT offers innovative solutions to modernize the sector. This systematic literature review surveys IoT technologies and their use across agricultural domains, aiming to compile all relevant research on applications, sensors, protocols, and network types. The review examined 67 peer‑reviewed papers published between 2006 and 2019, selected through a systematic process and classified by application domain. The review identifies key issues, challenges, and policy contexts, presents an IoT agriculture framework, and outlines open research directions for future work.

Abstract

The growing demand for food in terms of quality and quantity has increased the need for industrialization and intensification in the agriculture field. Internet of Things (IoT) is a highly promising technology that is offering many innovative solutions to modernize the agriculture sector. Research institutions and scientific groups are continuously working to deliver solutions and products using IoT to address different domains of agriculture. This paper presents a systematic literature review (SLR) by conducting a survey of IoT technologies and their current utilization in different application domains of the agriculture sector. The underlying SLR has been compiled by reviewing research articles published in well-reputed venues between 2006 and 2019. A total of 67 papers were carefully selected through a systematic process and classified accordingly. The primary objective of this systematic study is the collection of all relevant research on IoT agricultural applications, sensors/devices, communication protocols, and network types. Furthermore, it also discusses the main issues and challenges that are being investigated in the field of agriculture. Moreover, an IoT agriculture framework has been presented that contextualizes the representation of a wide range of current solutions in the field of agriculture. Similarly, country policies for IoT-based agriculture have also been presented. Lastly, open issues and challenges have been presented to provide the researchers promising future directions in the domain of IoT agriculture.