Basics of Big Data in Agriculture

To build knowledge-based agriculture and agricultural digital twins, we will have to work with huge amounts of heterogeneous data at high speed, i.e. big data. This is due to the huge and constantly growing flow of data from a variety of sensors and measuring devices, such as cameras on satellites, aircraft and drones, as well as measurement data from sensors in the air, on the ground and in water. In addition, the resolution and frequency of data collection from these sensors is increasing exponentially.

Many industries are benefiting from big data, which has been labelled the "new oil". The term Big Data has been used since 2001, when Doug Laney introduced the 3V characteristics: Volume, Velocity and Variety. Over time, two more "V"s (value and veracity) were added to help data scientists more effectively formulate and communicate the important characteristics of big data.