--- title: "MQTT for Agriculture: Greenhouses, Irrigation & Drones | ConnectMQ" description: "Connect greenhouse sensors, irrigation valves, tank levels and agricultural drones over LTE-M, NB-IoT or LoRaWAN to one managed MQTT broker with retained state." url: "https://connectmq.com/industries/agriculture/" language: "en" --- ![](https://connectmq.com/images/industries/hero/agriculture.webp) # MQTT for farms and agri-tech Soil probes in the field, climate controllers in the greenhouse, tank sensors in the yard and drones over the crop all report from places with weak coverage. ConnectMQ brings them onto one managed MQTT broker, so your farm dashboard, irrigation controller and phone app act on live data. [Try it free](https://app.connectmq.com/signup) [Use cases](#use-cases) No card required The challenge ## Farm data that arrives too late — or not at all 1. 01 ### Patchy rural connectivity Fields, orchards and pivots sit at the edge of cellular coverage or behind a LoRaWAN gateway. Devices drop off, readings go missing and failed HTTP uploads go unnoticed. 2. 02 ### A separate app for every vendor The greenhouse climate computer, irrigation controller, weather station, tank monitor and drone platform each have their own portal and login. Nobody sees the whole farm in one place. 3. 03 ### Problems found on the morning walk A stuck valve, an empty fertigation tank, a vent that did not open or a cold room warming up overnight costs crop and produce — and is usually found hours later. Why ConnectMQ ## One broker for field, greenhouse and yard Growers and agri-tech teams use ConnectMQ as the shared MQTT layer between devices in the field and the software that decides what happens next. - ### Managed, so no server on the farm A private broker instance in the cloud, reachable over TLS from any gateway or cellular modem. No server in the farm office to keep running and no broker for your team to patch. - ### Credentials per farm, device and contractor Every gateway, drone and controller has its own username and password, and per-topic ACLs keep growers, agronomists and service contractors to their own farms and fields. - ### Built for links that come and go Small MQTT packets suit LTE-M, NB-IoT and LoRaWAN backhaul. Persistent sessions and QoS 1 deliver valve commands after a reconnect, and retained messages hold the last state of every valve, pump and tank. - ### Rules and alerts on crop conditions Threshold rules on soil moisture, greenhouse temperature, tank level or cold room temperature trigger alerts and notifications, and Last Will warns when a field gateway goes silent. Key use cases ## Key use cases in Agriculture Most farms and agri-tech teams start with one connected job — irrigation, a greenhouse or tank levels — then add drones and cold rooms on the same topic tree. [ ### Agricultural Drones Spraying and scouting drone fleets connected to your farm management platform Explore the use case](https://connectmq.com/use-cases/agricultural-drones/)[ ### Greenhouse IoT Sensors Temperature, humidity, CO₂, PAR light and substrate data for the climate computer and grower Explore the use case](https://connectmq.com/use-cases/greenhouse-iot-sensors/)[ ### Smart Irrigation Soil probes, valves and pumps over LTE-M, NB-IoT or LoRaWAN, with reliable valve commands Explore the use case](https://connectmq.com/smart-agriculture/)[ ### Tank Level Monitoring Remote level readings from fuel, chemical, LPG and bulk tanks for vendor-managed inventory and timely refills Explore the use case](https://connectmq.com/use-cases/tank-level-monitoring/) Architecture ## From the field to your farm systems - Soil probes & weather stations - Irrigation valves & pumps - Greenhouse climate controllers - Drones, tanks & cold rooms **ConnectMQ**MQTT 3.1.1 · 5 · TLS - Farm dashboard - Irrigation & climate control - Farm management software - Grower mobile app Example topic namespace ``` agri/farm-12/field-7/soil-03 agri/farm-12/field-7/valve-2/set agri/farm-12/field-7/valve-2/state (retained) agri/farm-12/gh-2/climate agri/farm-12/drone/dr-04/telemetry ``` Related solutions ## Solutions for Agriculture [ ### Smart Agriculture Soil probes, weather stations and irrigation Learn more](https://connectmq.com/smart-agriculture/)[ ### Connected Robots & Physical AI Robot fleets talking to fleet managers and AI pipelines Learn more](https://connectmq.com/robotics/) ## Agriculture: frequently asked questions How do I connect LoRaWAN farm sensors to an MQTT broker? Your LoRaWAN network server, such as ChirpStack or The Things Stack, exposes decoded uplinks over MQTT or webhooks. A small bridge forwards them to ConnectMQ under topics like agri/{farm}/{field}/{sensor}, and your dashboard, irrigation controller and app subscribe there. Is MQTT good for rural and low-bandwidth connections? Yes. MQTT has a tiny header, keeps one long-lived connection and works well over LTE-M and NB-IoT modems. Persistent sessions and QoS 1 make sure commands and readings arrive after a dropout, and retained messages give an app the last known value straight away. Can I use MQTT for greenhouse automation? Many greenhouse controllers and gateways publish over MQTT or can be bridged from Modbus. Use MQTT to share climate data and setpoints with dashboards, apps and alerting, and keep closed-loop control of vents, screens and heating in the local climate computer, so the greenhouse keeps running if the internet goes down. How do agricultural drones send data over MQTT? The drone or its ground station publishes position, battery and mission progress as small MQTT messages over LTE or the base station’s link, and receives mission commands on its own topic. Large files such as multispectral imagery are uploaded separately; MQTT carries the status and the “upload complete” event. ## Pilot a connected farm on ConnectMQ Start on the Free plan — no card required. Connect one field, greenhouse or tank yard, then move to Basic or Scale when you go live. No overage charges, cancel anytime. [Get started](https://app.connectmq.com/signup) [See pricing](https://connectmq.com/pricing/) ## Other industries - [Manufacturing](https://connectmq.com/industries/manufacturing/) - [Automotive](https://connectmq.com/industries/automotive/) - [Oil & Gas](https://connectmq.com/industries/oil-gas/) - [Utilities](https://connectmq.com/industries/utilities/) - [Renewable Energy](https://connectmq.com/industries/renewable-energy/) - [Chemicals](https://connectmq.com/industries/chemicals/) - [Pharma & Life Sciences](https://connectmq.com/industries/pharma-life-sciences/) - [Food & Beverage](https://connectmq.com/industries/food-beverage/) - [Healthcare](https://connectmq.com/industries/healthcare/) - [Transportation & Logistics](https://connectmq.com/industries/transportation-logistics/) - [Retail & E-commerce](https://connectmq.com/industries/retail-ecommerce/) - [Telecom](https://connectmq.com/industries/telecom/) - [Financial Services](https://connectmq.com/industries/financial-services/) ## Articles [All articles](https://connectmq.com/blog/) Managed MQTT Cloud ### [How to Choose an IoT MQTT Broker: 12 Criteria and the Questions to Ask Your Vendor](https://connectmq.com/blog/how-to-choose-an-iot-mqtt-broker/) A practical 12-point checklist for choosing an IoT MQTT broker, a table of questions to ask every vendor, and a five-minute hands-on test you can run against broker.connectmq.com. September 21, 20269 min read Managed MQTT Cloud ### [What Is a Managed MQTT Broker? Benefits, Costs and How to Choose](https://connectmq.com/blog/managed-mqtt-broker/) A managed MQTT broker lets you run IoT messaging without operating servers, certificates or patches yourself. Compare managed and self-hosted, pick a deployment model and connect your first client in five minutes. September 1, 202610 min read Industrial IoT ### [Sparkplug B and the Unified Namespace: Structuring Industrial IoT Data on MQTT](https://connectmq.com/blog/mqtt-sparkplug-b-unified-namespace/) Sparkplug B gives industrial MQTT a strict session and payload model, while a Unified Namespace gives your plant data a single, readable home. Here is how they fit together, with topic design tips and live examples. August 26, 20269 min read