Saffron is the world's most expensive crop that is widely used in cuisine, medication, and cosmetics. Therefore, the demand for saffron is increasing globally day by day. Despite its massive demand, the cultivation of saffron has dramatically decreased and is grown in only a few countries.
Saffron is an environment-sensitive crop that is affected by various factors including rapid change in climate, light intensity, pH level, soil moisture, salinity level, and inappropriate cultivation techniques. It is not possible to control many of these environmental factors in traditional farming. Although, many innovative technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT) have been used to enhance the growth of saffron still, there is a dire need for a system that can overcome primary issues related to saffron growth.
In a recently completed research, an IoT-based system for the greenhouse was proposed to control the numerous agronomical variables such as corm size, temperature, humidity, pH level, soil moisture, salinity, and water availability. The proposed architecture monitors and controls environmental factors automatically and sends real-time data from the greenhouse to the microcontroller.
The sensed values of various agronomical variables are compared with threshold values and saved in cloud for sending to the farm owner for efficient management. The experiment results reveal that the proposed system is capable of maximizing saffron production in the greenhouse by controlling environmental factors as per crop needs.
Rabia Khan, Muhammad Shoaib Farooq, Adel Khelifi, Umer Ahmad, Faizan Ahmad & Shamyla Riaz. Internet of things (IoT) based saffron cultivation system in greenhouse.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-69513-1
Source: Nature.