Designing an IoT Framework for High Valued Crops Farming

Abstract

: Agriculture plays a vital role in providing employment, revenue and domestic product of farmers. In the Philippines, agriculture has a large share of employment and likewise with the population who depends on it. The increase of agricultural product and income is necessary for the growth of the country’s economic condition. Unfortunately, the insufficiency of technology and the use of traditional methods of farming along with the issues and challenges associated to crops farming greatly affects farmers which results to low yielding of crops. The integration of smart agriculture using the Internet of Things (IoT) is an absolute solution in modernizing the traditional methods of agriculture. This simplifies farming techniques and improves time efficiency, water and fertilizer management, crop monitoring, soil and security management. This paper proposes an IoT framework that address the current issues and challenges associated to high valued crops farming in Alfonso Lista, Ifugao. It integrates two main functions including environment data sensing by a wide variety of sensors and environment factors control with some mechanics driven by smart actuators. This sensors and actuators are used for real-time monitoring, analysis and collection of information about the farm conditions like weather, moisture, temperature, humidity, fertility of soil and level of water. Essential data were gather by means of observation and in-depth interview with Ifugao farmers and employees of Yao Jia Xi Corporation – Alfonso Lista, Ifugao. The developed framework provides holistic foundation in the development of IoT-driven system for high valued crops farming with low cost and easy implementation.