A Review on Digital Twins Technology: A New Frontier in Agriculture

Abstract

Farming is crucial for various aspects of daily life, including food, the economy, environment, culture, and community. It provides employment opportunities, generates income, and increases the export of agricultural products, particularly in rural areas. Sustainable farming practices promote soil health, biodiversity, and ecosystem services and are essential in many parts of the world. Farming is deeply rooted in cultures and traditions and is a way of life for many communities, passed down from generation to generation. Without farming, we would not have the abundance and variety of food that we enjoy today. Advancements in technology, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the Internet of Things, have greatly impacted agriculture by producing vast amounts of digital data on crops, soil, and weather conditions. However, managing and analyzing these data can be challenging for farmers, especially those in developing nations. To address this issue, affordable digital farming solutions, including open-source software platforms, sensor networks, and mobile apps, are being developed to help farmers optimize their resources, increase yields, and profits. Digital twin technology can play a crucial role in digital farming by providing farmers with a virtual replica of their physical farm. It is a digital depiction of a real-world asset, such a farm or a particular crop field, that gathers information from sensors, weather stations, and satellite pictures. This technology has arisen that has been hailed as revolutionary in a number of fields, including manufacturing machines, construction, agriculture, healthcare, and the automotive and aerospace industries. However, the technology is still in its early stages in agriculture, and it can be challenging to handle the interactions between different farming-related digital twin components. Additionally, digital twinning can require significant investment in technology and infrastructure, which may be a barrier for small-scale farmers.

Received: 31 March 2023 | Revised: 18 July 2023 | Accepted: 8 August 2023

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Author Contribution Statement

Nabarun Dawn: Conceptualization, Writing - original draft. Souptik Ghosh: Conceptualization, Writing - original draft. Aloke Saha: Methodology, Resources, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization. Soumya Chatterjee: Writing - review & editing. Tania Ghosh: Writing - original draft. Sagnik Guha: Writing - original draft. Subhajit Sarkar: Writing - original draft. Pronoy Mukherjee: Writing - original draft. Tanmay Sanyal: Conceptualization, Supervision.