Abstract
Hydroponics farming is fast gaining acceptance globally as an alternative and viable method of farming, instigated by the contemporary challenges posed by climate change, exploding population growth, and global food insecurity. Hydroponics farming can be greatly improved by leveraging on innovative technological advances that will allow for the effective and efficient utiliza-tion of limited natural resources such as water, energy (sunlight), and dwindling agricultural farmlands, consequently resulting in higher yields. This paper presents the design and implementation of an automated flood and drain hydroponic system with internet of things and Android application functionalities. The design is an integrated and automatic plant-watering, water level, and pH measurement and control system using Android application with wi-fi communication technology. Tests carried out proved the worka-bility of the system in line with expected design considerations.
TopMain Focus Of The Chapter
This paper aims to automate the original/traditional ebb and flow system, leveraging on sensor technology for monitoring and android application for water level, pH and nutrients concentration measurement and control, with minimal human intervention. This is done by explaining current world problems and background research on several hydroponic methods.
Issues, Controversies, Problems
Rural to urban migration is increasing; many countries, especially in the developing regions are gradually adopting the concepts of smart cities and 4IR (Dogo, Salami, Aigbavboa, & Nkonyana, 2019). The consequent effect of this paradigm shift will require a vast amount of land to build basic infrastructures such roads, schools, hospitals, and airports, this will affect negatively on agricultural farmlands needed for food production. In no distant future, more food will have to be produced by farmers to feed the exploding global population, with a limited amount of natural resources and under harsh economic conditions (Barrios, Ouattara, & Strobl, 2008). Hence, food insecurity is turning out to be one of the global challenges today. The method of hydroponics crop production is a viable means that will help to address some of these aforementioned problems, in tandem with enabling and innovative technological advancements. This will be critical in meeting the sustainable development goal (SGD) object 2 on zero hunger as we approach the year 2030 SGD target year.
Solutions And Recommendations
There are many advantages associated with hydroponic farming. They include, minimal space requirement, low water usage, better control of the environment which makes pest/disease control easier to deal with, can be set up nearly anywhere indoors and outdoors, and minimal labour requirement (Barrios, Ouattara, & Strobl, 2008) (Jones Jr, 2004).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Automation: The use or introduction of automatic equipment in a manufacturing or other process or facility.
4IR: The fourth industrial revolution, which has also been referred to as 4IR or Industry 4.0, describes the age of intelligence and encompasses technologies like artificial intelligence, augmented reality, 3D printing and cloud computing.
IoT: The internet of things is a network of Internet connected objects able to collect and exchange data.
Hydroponics: The process of growing plants in sand, gravel, or liquid, with added nutrients but without soil.