Digital Agriculture and Intelligent Farming Business Using Information and Communication Technology: A Survey

Adopting new information and communication technology (ICT) as a solution to increase agricultural productivity and achieve food security becomes more urgent than before, particularly with the demographical explosion and the exponential increase of population worldwide. In this survey, we analyze the literature in the last decade to examine the existing fog/edge computing architectures adapted for the smart farming domain and identify the most relevant challenges resulting from the integration of IoT and fog/edge computing platforms. On the other hand, we describe the status of Blockchain usage in intelligent farming as well as the most challenges 36 this promising topic is facing. The relevant recommendations and researches needed in Blockchain topic to enhance intelligent farming sustainability are also highlighted in this paper. This survey provides also an overview of the IoT middleware dedicated to dealing with virtual sensor data. It is found through the examination that the adoption of ICT in the various farming processes helps to increase productivity with low efforts, and costs. Several challenges are faced when implementing such solutions, they are mainly related to the technological development, energy consumption, and the complexity of the environments where the solutions are implemented. Despite these constraints, it is certain that shortly several farming businesses will heavily invest to introduce more intelligence into their management methods. Furthermore, the use of sophisticated deep learning and Blockchain algorithms may contribute to the resolution of many recent farming issues.