In Fukushima's farming resumption area, after the accident at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, some of the farmers commute to the greenhouses far from their residence. In addition, their greenhouses and arable lands are often scattered. This has made it difficult for them to physically visit their production sites and obtain agricultural information about each greenhouse.
NARO has been considering the application of smart technologies such as IoT to support agriculture carried out at remote locations. Hence, they have developed a remote greenhouse monitoring system named the "Kayoinougyo Shien System" that allows the user to build an inexpensive and simple system instead of operating expenses and highly accurate equipment, and to easily check the status of the greenhouse even from remote locations.
The system can be installed easily by referring to the published manual. The material cost for installation is around 20,000 yen, and the maintenance cost is as low as about 1,000 yen a month. In addition to being able to easily check the temperature, humidity, and soil moisture of the greenhouse via smartphone on a regular basis, the user can also check the information necessary for management work such as the maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and average temperature, and the history using graphs.
It is possible to reduce the frequency of actual visits by farmers for greenhouse management and reduce patrol time by installing the system.
For more information:
National Agriculture and Food Research Organisation
www.naro.affrc.go.jp