Science Farm brings smart crop cultivation to Africa and Asia

Science Farm, a smart farm solution provider, announced on April 20 that it is considering entering markets in the Africa and Asia regions based on the experience it has accumulated through its domestic business activities. The company applies convergence technology, smart devices, and big data to the cultivation of plants, flowers, and fruit.

CEO Yu said, “The Netherlands has been collecting data on crop cultivation for over 100 years. Based on the data of such advanced countries as well as Korea, Science Farm plans to develop smart farm solutions specifically for crop cultivation in countries in Africa and Asia, such as Rwanda and Mongolia.” Yu has been collecting domestic crop cultivation data for three years.

As plants are sensitive to changes in the environment, such as changes in temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide concentration, a range of sensors are placed in a weather station outside to measure external conditions such as temperature, wind direction and speed, and amount of insolation as well as in an enclosed instrument shelter inside the greenhouse to gather data on internal conditions such as temperature, humidity, ground temperature and moisture, and carbon dioxide concentration.

Using IoT technology, the weather data is transmitted to a telecommunications device and analyzed as big data to determine what automated actions should be taken inside the greenhouse, such as the opening and closing of windows and irrigation. Currently, strawberries, paprika, watermelon, lettuce, and red pepper are being grown using this technology. CEO Yu said, “Peppers can be damaged by excessive rain and strong sunlight, reducing yields. Using our smart farm solution, however, increases greenhouse yields fourfold. And as the technology reduces the need for the human monitoring of plants, it allows farmers and farm workers to enjoy a five-day workweek.”

Read more at The Korea Herald