How to Feed a Growing Population—An IoT Approach to Crop Health and Growth

Abstract

Humankind consumes the planet's resources beyond what the Earth can provide with estimations according 9.2 billion human beings in 2050 consuming yearly almost twice the resources the Earth can provide. Crop production needs to increase by 70% to be able to feed all the population. A convenient way to address this issue is to produce efficiently respecting the planet. Non-invasive technology at a low cost is a solution to monitor crop growth and health, helping small to medium farmers to increase their productivity keeping in mind the conservation of the planet. Circuits and Systems offer large range of possibilities. We propose to investigate IoT with medium cost sensors to deliver real time, affordable and precise data processing for agriculture producing an Automated Decision-Making Systems (ADMS). This paper is a detailed analysis of plant parameters, sensors and their compatibility with affordable ADMS based IoT systems. Some experimentation of critical parameters show their impacts for plant growth and health. An overview of an IoT system under development is introduced.