RFID in Agriculture

Introduction

There has been a heightening concern about the safety of Agricultural products in recent past, especially foodstuffs. Thus, to guarantee safety for these products and foodstuffs, there is a need for traceability scheme that can help disclose information on food safety and distribution. Because of that requirement for safety, recent advances in the RFID technology do provide vast opportunities for the research and innovation in the Agricultural sector.  In agriculture, some of the areas where there has been the application of this technology are in animal identification, tracking as well as in food chain traceability and control. Using sensors on tags has made it possible to monitor the distribution chain of perishable food products, and there are new applications like environmental monitoring, farm machinery, irrigation and specialty crops. The aim of this paper is to provide comprehensive information on the usage of the RFID technology in the agriculture in light of its acquisition, installation, and maintenance without paying much attention to the technical details.

Basics of RFID System

An RFID system consists of some components that include transponders, readers (can be hand-held or stationary), and data input units and other software for the system. The ID tags sometimes called correspondents form the backbone of the RFID technology, and they have different shapes, sizes and they also have varying reading ranges.  The key components of an RFID system may consist of the following key components: tags, readers, antenna, and a server (Singh &Singh, 2007). The tags contain some unique information regarding a product; the reader has a connection to the tag to read the information on the tag, the antenna connects to the reader, and the server is the one that receives and decodes information from the reader. The tags consist of three memory components that include the barcode number, security bit and a variable memory for sorting items.

An RFID system works as follows. The transmitter sends a radio signal with a specific frequency of an antenna. The tag that should be within the range of the transmitter then recognizes the sent signal. The tags respond to the signal by sending some signal that the receiver recognizes. The most important a thing with the recent RFID tags is that they are battery-less and this they receive their energy from the transmitters to power them. That makes the tags be low-cost devices that in turn can lead to the protection of the environment because many applications do require a single use after which they can throw them away (Xiaowei et al., 2012). The users embed the tags onto the objects agricultural products using a unique code that can be hard for someone to alter. The chip communicates with the database of the organization or company so that they can locate those items of foodstuffs from the point of production to the distribution centers.

Advances in RFID

In the recent times, there has been the introduction of RFID tags that have two groups of frequencies that were not possible with the previous technologies. In these recent tags, the low-frequency tag functions at a frequency of 125 to 134.2 KHz whereas the high-frequency tags work at the frequencies of up to 13. 56 MHz. The low-frequency tags have the frequency that ahs universal acceptance for tracking animals worldwide. The usage of these tags is helpful in agriculture in the identification of the animal diseases and reporting so that it is easy to identify those animal diseases and then respond as efficiently as possible. The tags can also help to identify the genetic of the animals as well as their number. The new tag is rewritable, and so the information can have to change when there is a need to do so. The benefit for this kind of system is low costs, quick design due to the usage of a wireless sensor that can in turn improve the design and performance of the system ( Hamirtia, & Hoffacker, 2012).

Recent advances in the RFID technology has also seen the monitoring of dairy cows with the application of tag readers that operate at a frequency of up to 915 MHz. The tags have an attachment on the ears of those animals with a unique number to identify the animal in the form of a barcode. These systems are useful in tracking the milking cycle for these cows (Stankovski et al., 2012). There is also a recent introduction of an RFID system with smart wireless sensors for monitoring soil including the soil temperature and the elements present in that soil. The system consists of a temperature transducer with a microcontroller for acquiring the data and processing it as appropriate. It transmits data up to a distance of 1 meter. There are also recent advances of the technology sin the biomedical applications where it has usage in monitoring objects like eggs and body temperature.

Benefits of the RFID system

1.      The combination of both the item identification and security into a single tag helps in savings costs and time.

2.      The RFID system helps in multiple reading of items at ago thus resulting in speed circulation.

3.      It is possible to attach smart labels into divergent media like DVDS, CDs or the print and nonprint media.

4.       It is possible to read and write onto the tags /and this offer flexibility in data encoding and decoding.

5.      The tags are permanent, meaning that they can have usage in a lifetime without wearing out or erasing data.

6.      The RFID tags have no need of a line of sight for an item, and so data can have to capture even from a distance as long as that distance is within the range of the reader.

7.      Public transportation authorities can make us of the RFID system to control as well as secure all parameters.

Disadvantages

1.      There has to be proper maintenance of the sensor/reader so as to make sure that it remains in a trim condition and the power supply is always intact. The performance of existing gate sensor is problematic as they cannot read tags that are up to twice the distance for other sensors (Butters, 2007).

2.      High cost: the cost of acquiring the RFID technology is the major advantage of the technology and in many areas there has not been proper documentation of the return on investment (Boss, 2003).

3.      Tags used by agriculture vendors are incompatible irrespective of their conformance to similar standards, and thus change in vendors would require retagging of items (Nisha et al., 2006).

4.      Because of the need to have a continuous supply of power to the scanners and processors, there is a need to have a generator backup. That in turn results in consumption of space and additional costs apart from the undesirable noise that it produces.

5.      There can be compromising of the RFID system if someone wraps the tagged material with a three layer material using the normal household foil. That cancels out the signal.

6.      There is a possibility of tag collision especially when more than be chip is reflecting a signal concurrently.

7.      Tracking of items even after their purchase leads to the rise of privacy concerns.

Security concerns/practices associated with the RFID system

Identity theft, hackers, and viruses among other concerns are rising the high-level of fear with the usage of RFID technology. Data insecurity can have broad implication in the business practices where the information technology has application. The increased use of the RFID systems in industries opens a new front of data threats as well as the data security measures (Singh &Singh, 2007). The RFID system consists of a full spectrum of wireless devices that have different power, capabilities and sophistication. The key threat to the backend communication systems of industries using the RFID system is the unauthorized access to the network. The RFID reader manufacturers can implement standardized technologies with high security for the backend so as ensure that they close the ports that are not secure. They can also implement secure processes, for instance, the certificates for authentication, secure socket layer, and secure shell. That can help keep away hackers and other potential threats to the systems.

There is also a front end security concern regarding the usage of the RFID system whereby it is challenging and complex to provide full security at the front end of this technology. Communication between tags and sensors takes pace through the air though the usage of radio frequency communication. That kind of connection opens a door for several threats to take place including unauthorized access to tags, side channel attacks, and rogue and clone attacks. Because of that there has been an introduction of the Generation 2 protocol to improve on the previous security shortcomings of the generation 1 protocols. The new generation protocols help companies and organizations leveraging the RFID technology to ensure there is maximum security for their systems and the RFID system (Nisha et al., 2006). They included a command for killing tags and include a disguised EPC number that helps to protect tags from being read by unauthorized readers.

Impact of implementation

Administrative Changes

The administration in the agricultural industry should have to make several changes aimed at ensuring that the RFID system is secure and that it has a good integration into the organization. There should be the appointment of new staff that is responsible for the management of this system so as to ensure that it workers as required just like the other systems of the industry.

Human and Process Change

There should be the reduction of the number of individuals in the supply chain because the introduction of the RFID system leads to speeding up of item checking and tracking. There will be no longer the lengthy processes of item checking and verification because of the introduction of the RFID technology in the RFID industry.  The many points in the production and distribution chain would be no longer in requirement because the technology helps to ease the tasks and, therefore, quick distribution of food products into the market.

Changes in Organizational Policies

The introduction of the RFID technology in the agriculture industry results in the changes of policies within the industry or individual companies so as to ensure that there is proper management of the technology.  It also ensures secure transactions take place, and the system is secure, running without any defects. The changes in policies also ensure that there is harmonious working and integration of the technology with other systems in the agriculture industry to have better communication between departments taking place. The industry has to upgrade the databases or get a new one that can accommodate the large amounts of data coming from the tags and there has to be a proper backup and disaster planning in place to guard against any data loss.

The other thing that should have changed is the training of employees in the industry so as to help them have the knowledge and the ability to manage better the system. The workers at different points in the industry also have to undergo training to equip them with the knowledge or to work with the RFID technology. The training helps them to carry out their duties effectively and help in the delivery of high quality and timely agricultural products into the market. There would also be the need to train the workers and staff in the industry in question regarding the security of the RFID system because security is an indispensable aspect of any company. That will ensure that company data is safe from misuse and theft.

References

Boss RW (2003). RFID technology for libraries [Monograph]. Library technology reports.

Butters A (2007). RFID Systems, standards and privacy within libraries. Electro. Lib., 25, 430-439.

Hamirtia, T.K. & Hoffacker, E.C. (2012). Development of a Smart Wireless Soil Monitoring Sensor Prototype using RFID technology: Applied Engineering in Agriculture. American Society of Agricultural Engineers, 21(1), 139-143.

Nisha, F., Bakhshi, S. & Ali, N. (2006). RFID System: A boon for libraries. In 4th International convention caliber-2006. Ahmadabad: Inflibnet. Pp.554-555.

Singh A, Singh, AP (2007). RFID: A revolutionary step towards new horizon. The Indian J. Tech. Edu., 30, 70-75.

Stankovski, S., Gordana, O., Ivana, S., Marija, R., Snezana, T. & Denis, K. (2012). Dairy cow monitoring by RFID. Scienter Agricola, 69, 75-80.

Xiaowei, Z., Sama, K., Mukhopadhyay, K. & Hisashi, H. (2012). A review of RFID technology and its managerial applications in different industries. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 29, 152 –167.

 Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in cheap term papers if you need a similar paper you can place your order from top research paper writing companies.