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BehrTech Blog

4 Benefits of Smart Greenhouses and How to Get Started

Amid climate change, dwindling resources and increasing population, the global farming industry has come under significant pressure. As the unpredictability intensifies, it’s no surprise that growers are turning to advanced technologies to boost production efficiency and crop resilience. In agriculture, the Internet of Things (IoT) is more present than ever before, and smart greenhouses are a stellar example.

A greenhouse provides a controlled environment customized to the vegetation needs cultivated inside. Traditionally, micro-climate and agronomic parameters have been recorded in a rather manual and inconsistent manner. There’s a limit to what can be measured, and farming practices are executed on a pre-defined, speculation-based schedule. On the other hand, weather changes throughout the day and “invisible” conditions like open doors or early-stage infection constantly influence the greenhouse environment and threaten to damage crops.

Smart greenhouses are bringing together conventional agricultural systems and new IoT technologies for complete visibility and automation. Click To Tweet

4 Benefits of Smart Greenhouses for Crop Growers

Equipped with modern sensor and communications technologies, smart greenhouses automatically capture and deliver information 24/7 on the surroundings and crop. Collected data is fed into an IoT platform where analytical algorithms turn it into actionable intelligence to uncover bottlenecks and abnormalities. Accordingly, HVAC and lighting operations, alongside irrigation and spraying activities can be regulated on-demand. Continuous data monitoring facilitates the development of predictive models to assess crop disease and infection risks.

By unlocking massive crop insights, a smart greenhouse allows growers to minimize labor work, improve efficiency in resource and chemical use while optimizing yield rates.

Smart Greenhouses


Also Recommended for You: [White Paper] Unleashing the Power of Environmental Monitoring in the Digital Age


1. Maintain Ideal Micro-Climate Conditions

IoT sensors allow farmers to collect various data points at unprecedented granularity. They provide real-time information on critical climate factors including, temperature, humidity, light exposure and carbon dioxide across the greenhouse. This data prompts relevant adjustments to HVAC and lighting settings to maintain the best conditions for plant growth while driving energy efficiency. In parallel, motion/acceleration sensors help identify doors that are unintentionally left open to ensure a strictly controlled environment.

2. Enhance Irrigation and Fertilization Practices

In addition to ambient parameters, smart greenhouses enable farmers to stay on top of their crop conditions. This ensures irrigation and fertilization activities are on par with the actual needs of cultivated plants for maximized yields. For example, readings on soil volumetric water content indicate whether crops are under water stress. Likewise, measurements of soil salinity give useful insights on fertilization requirements. Based on this data, sprinkler and spraying systems can be automatically turned on to address real-time crop demands while minimizing manual intervention.

3. Control Infection and Avoid Disease Outbreak

Crop infection is a persistent farming challenge, with every outbreak taking a heavy toll on the crop margins. Agrochemical treatments are available at hand, but farmers often don’t know the best time to apply them. Applications done too frequently raise ecological, safety and cost concerns, while failing to use treatments could lead to detrimental disease outbreaks. With the help of a machine learning platform, data on greenhouse environments, external weather and soil characteristics reveal valuable insights into existing risks of pest and fungi. Leveraging this information, farmers can apply treatments exactly when needed to ensure a healthy crop at the lowest chemical expense.

4. Prevent Thefts and Improve Security

Greenhouses with high-value crops are a vulnerable target for thieves. As traditional surveillance networks with CCTVs are expensive to implement, many growers don’t have an effective security system in place. In this context, IoT sensors in smart greenhouses provide an affordable infrastructure to monitor door status and detect suspicious activities. Connected with an automated alarm system, they instantly notify growers when a security issue arises.

Building Blocks of a Smart Greenhouse

So, what does it take to implement a smart greenhouse? There are a few key factors you should take into account:

a) Low-energy, battery-operated sensors to capture various climatic, agronomic and security data points

b) Reliable, cost-effective wireless connectivity to transmit data from cross-greenhouse sensors to a remote gateway

c) A diagnostic, machine learning platform to derive intelligence from sensor data and visualizes it on preferred UIs to make informed decisions on farming activities. The platform can also be integrated directly into existing greenhouse control systems to trigger automatic actions on HVAC, lighting, sprinkler and spraying networks.

Dispersed over large geographic areas, commercial-level greenhouse complexes call for long-range wireless connectivity with strong penetration capability. Besides providing reliable data transfer, such a solution allows a gateway to be installed closer to the power source to reduce wire trenching. Scalability is another factor to consider, as it minimizes the number of gateways needed to save on hardware, installation and management costs. Above all, the connectivity must be highly power-efficient so that sensors can sit in for years with minimal maintenance involved.

With a forecasted market value of more than US$ 1 billion by 2024, smart greenhouses are no doubt a major farming trend to watch. A smart greenhouse brings conventional agricultural systems and new IoT technologies together for complete visibility and automation. It helps pinpoint inefficiencies and combat issues that have long plagued farming operations to protect crops and maximize yields.

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Posted on January 21, 2021

CO2 Monitoring: The Corner Stone of Indoor Air Quality

CO2 Monitoring: The Corner Stone of Indoor Air Quality There are numerous factors that contribute to a healthy and comfortable indoor environment; lighting, sound, humidity, cleanliness and temperature, but since the pandemic, air quality as taken a priority position. On average, people spend approximately 90 percent of their time indoors, where the concentrations of some pollutants

Posted on January 13, 2021

5 Reasons Industrial Remote Monitoring Will Soar in 2021

5 Reasons Industrial Remote Monitoring Will Soar in 2021In 2020, remote operations and management emerged as a business-critical activity across industry 4.0. While the digitization of operations is already recognized as a key driver to competitive differentiation, COVID-19 concerns have increased the pressure for new levels of efficiency, productivity and safety from a distance. Companies

Posted on January 4, 2021

2021 IoT Predictions: 10 Experts Weigh-In

2021 IoT Predictions: 10 Experts Weigh-InOne lesson we can take away from 2020: predicting the future is difficult. Factors outside of our control can significantly impact our plans – either propelling us forward, or knocking us off course. Many organizations had to shift their plans in 2020, but nonetheless significant patterns have emerged across IoT

Posted on December 18, 2020

5 Key Benefits of People Counting & Occupancy Detection

Catch up on the latest and greatest developments in industrial IoT with the Top 10 industrial IoT blogs from 2020.

Posted on December 9, 2020

2021 IoT Trends: 5 Industries Expecting Big Gains from IoT Sensor Networks

Catch up on the latest and greatest developments in industrial IoT with the Top 10 industrial IoT blogs from 2020.

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