Fundamentals of Digital Agriculture

AgricultureAgriculture serves the fundamental demands and necessities of humans with the provisioning of food (i.e., crops, vegetables, fruits, herbs, spices, beverages, plants, meat, milk, eggs, honey, oil, etc.), clothing (i.e., cotton, wool, silk, leather, etc.), and sheltering (i.e., lumber, carpeting, plastics, etc.). Likewise, it helps humans with medicine, household items, fuel, and recreation. The word AgricultureAgriculture is derived from the Latin word Agricultura, which is ultimately a combination of two Latin words Ager (means land or field) and Cultura (means cultivation or growing). Thus, in the literal sense, the word AgricultureAgriculture means the cultivation of land. However, the agricultureAgriculture study is not only concerned with crop cultivation and planting trees but also with rearing livestock (Harris and Fuller Encycl Global Archaeol 12:104–113, 2014; Chandrasekaran et al., A textbook of agronomy. New Age International Limited, 2010). Consequently, AgricultureAgriculture can be defined as “the art and science of cultivating soil, growing crops, and rearing livestock for economic purposes” (Oxford lexico dictionary. https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/agriculture ; National geographic society. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/the-art-and-science-of-agriculture/ ). As an Art, agricultureAgriculture emphasizes the utilization of the knowledge and skills to perform cultivation and farming of crops and livestock to attain optimum yield. From this perspective, it includes the applicability of prior knowledge with physical (i.e., sowing, plowing, spraying of pesticide and fertilizer, etc.) and mental (i.e., crop selection, plowing method, sowing technique, spatial and temporal aspects of cropping system, etc.) skills. On the other hand, as a Science, agricultureAgriculture promises to employ advanced technologies (based on scientific principles) for the production, management, and protection of crops/plants/trees and livestock to obtain optimum yield while considering the climatic and geographical conditions of a certain area. From a scientific perspective, it includes the adoption of modern techniques for all essential agricultural practices i.e., land management, crop cultivation, crop production, crop protection, fertilization, breeding, hybridization, etc. In recent times, these modern techniques rely heavily on digital and computing technologies e.g. sensing technologySensing technology, wireless communicationWireless communication, and broadband (Internet) technology for data collection and transmission, fog and cloud computingCloud computing models for systematic storage of collected data, use of artificial intelligence to improve data analysisData analysis (processing) layer efficiency and accuracy, etc. This trend of agricultural digitalization brings innovations to all branches of agricultureAgriculture (mainly classified into five categories i.e., Crop/Plant/Tree Production and Management, Crop/Plant/Tree Improvement, Crop/Plant/Tree Protection, Animal/Livestock Farming, Allied Disciplines (Chandrasekaran et al., A textbook of agronomy. New Age International Limited, 2010; as shown in Fig. 1.1) and helps agriculturists to work more precisely, efficiently, and sustainably. Before delving into the details of all the innovations determining the current era of “agricultural digitalization”, it is important to discuss the evolutionary process of agricultureAgriculture that supports the adoption of different tools, techniques, and technologies to fulfill the domestic and global demands of food production in different eras of time.