Agricultural field production in an ‘Industry 4.0’ concept

Precision Agriculture is a well-established concept in agricultural field production. Ithas developed over the last three decades. As part of this concept, farmers are used to collect andhandle data. Farmers are also used to create solutions for field operations based on theirknowledge of diversity and local data.When compared to classic industrial production, agricultural field operations interact with abiologically-active system. From a production management system point of view, industrialproduction takes place in close, well-defined environments in which performance data can, to agreat extent, be measured by deterministic matters: mass (kg), volume/dimensions (m3/m), time(sec), etc.In agricultural operations such as work involving tillage, seeding, fertilising, and plant care, thereare by nature a good many possible adjustments available in order to optimise the operationmethod, plus intensity and timing. The challenge here is to establish the levels of knowledge thatare necessary to support the control of the individual and/or graduated, precision-basedoperations. Within this context, parameters such as, for example, the workability of the soilcannot be defined in terms of a few deterministic parameters. Neither can the operational impactupon the soil which is made by the tools being used. It is assumed that this challenge is part ofthe reason why the concept of precision agriculture still contains a great deal of unutilisedpotential. The hypothesis raised by this article is that analysis should be carried out in regard towhether inspiration for the concept of an ‘Industry 4.0’ can facilitate the establishment ofoperational solutions in the field of precision farming.