The worldwide agricultural sensors market is predicted to contribute to increased growth of global food production since these alternative farming practices are not dependent on arable land or climatic conditions, and year-round crop production may be accomplished. With these approaches, a move toward indoor growing and vertical farming is possible, representing a significant potential for the worldwide agricultural sensors industry.

Agriculture is the key source of income for the vast majority of the world's population; hence the demand for improved farming practices has increased. Furthermore, as a result of COVID-19 and consequent restrictions imposed, the need for digitalization in all fields has become a fundamental priority, with the agriculture industry being no exception.

This scenario has popularized the notion of smart agriculture and increased demand for digital farming devices. Smart sensors have developed as a high-rated technology for farming applications, including sensing soil quality, climatic conditions, and irrigation needs. The impact of sensor deployment has ranged from micro-scales on a plant cell process to large scales such as a worldwide remote sensing survey of grassland, forests, and crops.

According to BIS Research, the global agricultural sensors market was valued at $4.18 billion in 2020, which is expected to grow with a CAGR of 15.4% and reach $9.79 billion by 2026.

With new solutions being offered to the market regularly, the smart agricultural business continues to grow. The capability and relevance of devices that send important information to farmers and ranchers, combine sensor data, and optimize massive agricultural operations are continually expanding.

The following are some of the most important sensors used in agricultural practices:

• pH Sensors: It is critical to have a thorough grasp of soil qualities and conditions to maximize a plant's growth potential and deliver highly productive harvests. pH sensors are utilized to offer essential input on soil nutrient deficits as well as the presence of any undesirable substances. These sensors help to educate agricultural businesses by tracking annual swings in fertilizer levels and soil pH.

• GPS Sensors: GPS technology has been extensively used in-vehicle navigation systems for agricultural applications, such as plant harvesting and associated farming techniques. Auto-guided systems in agriculture applications such as field tilling can improve field routing, eliminate process overlaps, and ultimately reduce the amount of time necessary for job completion.

• Temperature Sensors in Agriculture: Temperature sensors play an important role in two main areas of smart agriculture: Monitoring of ambient conditions and mechanical assets. Temperature sensors are not only for monitoring the ambient conditions of physical space, but they also contribute to all smart agriculture asset monitoring applications. The ice wine industry requires highly accurate temperature and predictive temperature forecasts, as well as humidity, thus these sensors are quite useful in the agriculture sector.

• Accelerometer Sensors: Accelerometers, like temperature sensors, are widely used in the smart agricultural business to help with maintenance required. Accelerometers are essential for maintaining smart agriculture systems.

Agricultural Sensors Technological Innovations

Agricultural sensors are influencing yield quality, resulting in less food waste and less environmental effect.

Monitoring drainpipes and topsoil movement, as well as monitoring soil moisture content during the harrowing process, are examples of soil-sensing applications, while thermography applications for winter wheat, evaluating spray drift in vineyards, and tree health examining and remote-sensing applications are examples of plant-sensing applications.

• Detection of soil: The physical features of the soil and the climatic conditions are the most important factors in determining a successful yield. There was a need for soil detection sensors to maintain easily available soil moisture, which is a fundamental prerequisite for optimal plant growth conditions. Cosmic-ray neutron-based sensors have recently been detected in agriculture as one of the many approaches developed to assess soil moisture content. This technology enables large-scale monitoring of immense farmed regions, as well as low-cost capacity sensors designed to offer real-time soil moisture content measurement.

• Drainage Pipes Detection: Improving the effectiveness of soil water removal and, consequently, crop yield on land that already has an agricultural subsurface drainage system usually entails building new drain lines between the old ones. Moist soils with partially filled pipes give ground-penetrating radar (GPR) field conditions, providing the radar signal penetrates to the drain line depth. Sandy soils allow for better penetration of radar signals than clayey soils.

Field operations, as well as the methods employed in the computer processing sequence to create GPR profiles and GPR maps, are all critical factors to consider. Furthermore, GPR has demonstrated the ability to provide information on drainage pipe conditions in terms of the existence of flow blockages. This will help in producing guidelines that will increase the likelihood of success when utilizing GPR to identify and assess the condition of buried agricultural drainage pipes.

• Spray Drift Evaluation: Spray drift created by sprayers during the production of plant protection agents has detrimental consequences. Such spray spread contributes significantly to environmental contamination, causing health dangers to farmworkers and animals.

To summarize in a few words, Agricultural sensors have a broader impact on agriculture techniques that are essential for a healthy and sustainable crop production process. It is gaining popularity in the agriculture industry because of its high efficiency and potential to reduce natural resource depletion.