One Step to Smart Farming: Advantages of Greenhouse Automation
As the world’s population grows, the farming industry becomes more important than ever before. According to UN statistics, the world’s population will reach 9.7 billion by 2050, causing global agricultural production to rise by 69% between 2010 and 2050. To meet this demand the farming industry is turning to such technologies as the Internet of Things (IoT). Let’s talk about one of its use cases in agriculture — greenhouse automation.
How does it work?
Greenhouse automation systems include three building blocks: sensors, a control system, and a machine-learning platform. IoT sensors capture various climatic, agronomic, and security data points and transmit them to the control system through a wireless network. The control system allows the farmer to monitor all conditions remotely and adjust watering schedules, climate, lighting, if necessary. A machine-learning platform derives intelligence from sensor data and visualizes it to make an informed decision on farming activities. It is also possible to integrate the platform into the control system to trigger automatic actions on HVAC, lighting, sprinkler, and spraying networks.
Benefits
Greenhouse provides an artificial environment that needs as much control as possible. You have to care about air humidity, lighting, watering, soil fertility, etc. Automation allows you to track all these environmental data and adjust them with just a few clicks on your app. It helps you to save money, time, and resources. Modern sensors and communication technologies work 24/7, capturing, and delivering information on the surroundings and crop. Also, smart greenhouse has some impact on environment. It could help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (more than one-quarter of the world’s GHG emissions come from agriculture, forestry, and land-use change). Therefore, if you use IoT in your greenhouse you will only benefit from it but also contribute to fight against global warming.
How IoT can improve this sector of agriculture?
Climate control
IoT sensors collect data about air humidity, temperature, light exposure, and carbon dioxide at unprecedented granularity. It allows adjusting HVAC and lighting settings properly and maintaining the best conditions for plant growth. In addition, motion/acceleration sensors can identify doors that are accidentally left open.
Irrigation and fertilization
Automated fertigation system provides irrigation and fertilization of a large area with minimal process waste. It includes both overhead and root zone watering. This type of greenhouse automation enables farmers to minimize water and fertilizer use because these systems more readily accommodate the recycling of water. It also saves time as you can group similar plants together and water them single or multiple zones. Thanks to IoT sensors, farmers can see how much water and fertilizer your plants are getting/needing. It is also possible to monitor the control crop remotely based on individual zone watering needs while managing the entire cycle of the crop. In addition, automated fertigation system enables even, consistent watering cycles that produce a more consistent crop with better crop yields.
Control infection and avoid a disease outbreak
Crop infection is a persistent problem for growers as every outbreak is able to cause significant losses. It is important to know the best time to apply agrochemical treatments. A machine learning platform and collected data on greenhouse environments, external weather and soil characteristics help you to reveal the risk of pests and fungi. Using this information growers can apply treatments at the right moment.
Therefore, greenhouse automation systems can improve this sector of agriculture, making it more efficient and environment-friendly. IoT solutions offer great opportunities. All you need is to take this chance.
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