IOT-ENABLED SMART FARM

Problem Statement:

• Farming in India is carried out through mundane, outdated methods. Most farmers lack the necessary knowledge or expertise to carry out effective agriculture and rely on predictions, which oftentimes, fails.
• This leads to low yield, poor quality crops grown year after year, thus, putting the consumer at a loss of essential nutrients in their diet and also leaving the farmers with a very low profit margin for their crops.
• Since we know the benefits of proper soil moisture and its quality, air quality and irrigation in the growth of crops, such parameters cannot be ignored.

Our Objective:

• We, therefore, have come up with the idea of Crop Monitoring and Smart Farming using IoT. We believe that our concept will be a benchmark in the agribusiness due to its reliability and remote monitoring.
• Our idea tries to digitise farming and agricultural activities so that the farmers can check on the requirements of the crops and accurately predict their growth. This concept will surely accelerate their business to reach new heights and also be more profitable.

Proposed Solution:

• In order to fully maximise the profit margin in the Agriculture business, advances in digitisation must be made both in the Indoor, as well as, Outdoor Farming techniques.
• Our research suggests that the most profitable form of Indoor Farming in the next few years will be through the method of Hydroponics.
• A Hydroponics farm is a setup that enables growth of crops without the use of soil.
• Our project is designed to eliminate the only drawback, which is the high initial cost of the setup, by helping to optimize and increase the energy/cost efficiency of a Hydroponics farm by making use of setup called the ‘Solar Flower.’
• Determining weather conditions based on sensor readings, the ‘Flower’ would be able to switch between functioning as a solar tracking system (thus increasing energy efficiency by 60%), as well as, a rain water harvesting system.
• The solar energy that is harvested and stored, would in turn be used to power the smart farm.
• Plants use only certain regions of the light spectrum for growth. Hence using LED grow lights, we will be able to set up an indoor farm under a controlled environment, that can promote the 24*7 growth of crops by providing them with only their required light recipe for their optimal growth.
• Making use of the best combination of hydroponic nutrient solutions in the implemented hydroponics system, the rate of growth of certain crops can be improved, compared to that achieved by traditional growing techniques.
• Since all the components including the Solar Flower and all the electronic components for the farm are IoT-enabled, the entire farm can be controlled remotely through our Web Interface, thus, making this Self-Sustained Ecosystem facilitate maximum yield through minimal effort.
• This sort of Farming technique is especially useful in arid regions where water is scarce, as the same water is reused by replenishing the required nutrient solutions after every flow cycle, when the water passes through the Nutrient tank.
• To optimize the efficiency of Outdoor farms, our first proposed solution is to automate the irrigation process by setting up Self-Watering systems, thus, removing the need for continuous involvement from the farmer’s side.
• Fences to keep out external intruders, such as animals etc. can also be automated to function on their own using Motion sensors.
• Since all the data regarding the farm and its components are available to us through the sensors, we believe it is imperative to utilise this data to further help the farmers in making well thought out, calculated predictions with a far lower chance of failing.
• Hence, we propose that all this data be hosted on an Application, for easy viewing, and using predictive models, we can help the farmer decide the best crop to be grown at those given conditions; conditions that were established through accurate readings from the sensors.
• Additionally, pH sensors can be utilised to help determine the quality of the soil and will help in the predictive models made use of by the application.
• In this manner, the farmer has a detailed requirement/result analysis at his fingertips through this Application, enabling them to make far safer and more profitable predictions.
• We also wish to make use of this Application to bring the Farmer Community in direct contact with the Consumers. Interested consumers who sign up are allowed to view the data of any given farm, and if interested, they are given the option to get in touch with the farmer and hence, make an investment in the Farm, hence, the Consumer indirectly owns that farm for the duration of the growth of the next crop, which must meet the needs of the Consumer, while bringing in more revenue to the Farmer.
• Thus, this essentially eliminates the Middle Man in the Agricultural market and profits of both the Farmer and the Consumer is maximised. Conclusion:
• Agriculture is one of the oldest implementations of mankind yet has seen very slow advancements in Technology.
• Thus, the digitisation of Farming, by making use of IoT to automate, as well as, generate predictive models for Crop Growth is bound to improve the Nutrition standards of the Indian Diet and General Economy of the country exponentially and hence, revolutionise the business of Agriculture in India.