DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF IOT BASED VERTICAL FARMING FOR

VIGNA RADIATA

Regine S. Omboy, Kristine C. Bantilan, Ma. Liza E. Benial, Engr. Darwin C. Mangca
Surigao State College of Technology, Surigao City, Philippines
regineomboy784@gmail.com, bantilankristine29@gmail.com, lizabenial02@gmail.com, dcmangca@ssct.edu.ph

ABSTRACT: Internet of Things (IoT) is network featuring interconnected devices making physical world transparent with less
human effort. Submerging of this technology in the field of agriculture is bringing enormous changes. Due to the growing
population on Earth there are many lands that being occupied by humans. This growth of population really affects the supply of
food production. The easiest way to farm even without larger space for planting crops, vegetables, etc is the vertical farming. The
study focuses on designing and implementing of IoT based vertical farming for Vigna Radiata or Mungbean Sprouts.

KEYWORDS: Vertical Farming, mungbean sprouts, hydroponics, IoT-based, Arduino

INTRODUCTION
Agriculture is considered as the basis of life for the
human species as it is the main source of food grains and
other raw materials. It plays a vital role in the growth of the
country’s economy. It also provides large sample
employment opportunities to the people. Growth in the
agricultural sector is necessary for the development of the
economic condition of the country. Unfortunately, many
farmers still use the traditional methods of farming which
results in low yielding of crops and fruits. But due to the
growing population and industrialization gets larger and
larger, many farming lands are being converted to factories,
residences, and other public and private establishments
which affect the agricultural sectors especially the farmers
who use conventional farming. Conventional farming has
already acquired 80% of soil and mainly 65-70% of global
freshwater is used for soil-based farming of which 45-67%
is lost due to evaporation and runoff. Because of undesired
and constant changes in weather and environment leads to
unsustainable usage of resources and would see an end with
the supply chain. By the end of 2050, the world population
reaches 9.7 billion with additional land of 109 million
needed if conventional farming practices are continued.
These numbers grow as the population grows unless society
changes the way things are done. As Albert Einstein once
said, “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking
we used when we created them.”Humans are reproducing
faster than nature can create the resources we need to
survive, which is why society needs to focus more on
developing new forms of sustainable agriculture.
That’s why technology is now applied in
agriculture. It is essential to increase the productivity of
agricultural and farming processes to improve yields and
cost-effectiveness with new technology such as the Internet
of Things (IoT). In particular, IoT can make agricultural and
farming industry processes more efficient by reducing
human intervention through automation. One of the most
trends farming methods nowadays is the Vertical Farming, a
practice of growing crops in vertically stacked layers or
integrated in other structures(such as in skyscraper or old
warehouse) with use of less water and no soil. The modern
ideas of vertical farming use indoor farming technique and
controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) technology,
where all environmental factors can be controlled such as
artificial control of light, humidity, temperature, also Bio-
fortification which is to breed crops to increase their
nutritional value. According to the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO),
“sustainable agriculture conserves land, water, and plant and
animal genetic resources, and is environmentally non-
degrading, technically appropriate, economically viable and
socially acceptable”. Vertical farming has the potential to be
the future of sustainable agriculture and replace traditional
farming as society’s main source of food. By replacing
traditional farms with vertical farms, society would be
protecting the environment while also benefiting socially
and economically. In the field of vertical farming, an expert
Professor Dickson Despommier refers vertical farming as
being a method of growing crops “usually without soil or
light, in beds stacked vertically in a controlled environment
building”. The most special feature of vertical farming is
that its goal is to provide optimal growing conditions
throughout the development of the plants, conditions that are
almost optimal for each plant. The closed environment gives
protection from outdoor influences and gives more ways to
control the many uncertainties that cannot be controlled
when growing crops outdoor. Modern vertical farming
facilities can regulate lighting, humidity, temperature, and
nutrients with sophisticated sensors and climate control
systems. Vertical farming finds its origin in the desire of
farmers to be able to better protects the crop against external
weather influences. Farmers started with placing glass roofs
above the crops in the field and the first complete small-
scale greenhouses evolved to the greenhouses, people now
use today. Some of those plants such as crops example
carrots, radishes, lettuce, cabbage that grow in vertical
farming take time to grow. Those plants needed sunlight to
grow properly that’s why the agriculturist and technologies
provide artificial sunlight using LEDs. There is a plant that
grows without the soil and sunlight and can grow any period
it is very nutritious vegetables which are the “Mungbean
Sprouts”.
The researchers want to design and implement an
IoT based Vertical farming for Mungbean sprouts that can
help the farmers to harvest fast and make an income with no
hard efforts. They can just monitor their plant through an
application wherever they are and they don’t need to worry
if the plant is being watered. It can water it automatically if
the moisture is at a critical level. It can help the farmer to
relax and can do other things without the worry of what is
the status of their plant. Harvesting of mungbean sprouts is
easy and can produce a nice income for the farmers. Instead
of planting the mungbean in the soil and sprinkle it
manually it is in vertical so it doesn’t need sunlight for it to
grow, just right moisture and temperature to be applied it
can create a nice grow mungbean sprouts.
Related Literature
Prime agricultural land can be scarce and
expensive. With worldwide population growth, the demand
for both more food and more land to grow food is ever
increasing. But some entrepreneurs and farmers and
beginning to look up, not out, for space to grow more food.
One solution to our need for more space might be found in
the abandoned warehouses in our cities, a new building built
on environmentally damaged lands, and even in used
shipping containers from ocean transports. This solution,
called vertical farming, involves growing crops controlled
indoor environments, with precise light, nutrients, and
temperatures [1]. Vertical farming is cultivating vertically by
new agricultural methods, which combines the design of
building and farms all together in a high-rise building inside
the cities [2].
The Vertical Farm has to provide the optimal
conditions for the crops to transition from seeds through
germination, vegetative, reproductive and harvesting
phrases. As it is a closed system, a major prerequisite is
controlled temperature, and relatively humidity in the
growth chambers [3].
Usually, vertical farms are designed to grow plants
in the high-tech house that normally inhabit the buildings in
the city center. It is a modern agricultural system that is
enclosed with a controlled level of climate completely
which eliminates the external environmental factors such as
traditional agriculture. It is noted that vertical farming is no
longer dependent on large-scale land use although it can be
set up in any building that has lifted global climate without
taking into account the current climate as the rainy season,
winter and so on [4].
Outdoor farming is subjected to various level so of
attack from a wide variety of microbes (viruses and
bacteria)and plant pests (e.g.,locusts), often resulting in
significant loss of many type so of annual harvest[5].
Vertical farming also contributes to the reduction
of burning issues during land preparation. This is because
during this process, the combustion occurs to dispose the
whole farm and trees that are no longer producing fruits and
others. The haze and dust due to this activity cause stunted
plants for sunlight which lead them to become dead [6] as
well create an uneasy environment for its surroundings
locally or globally.
Growing food in the city means that fresh crops
may travel only a few blocks from field to table, making this
innovative approach the next logical step in the local food
movement [7]. In the agricultural aspects, Internet of things is
a new trend in farming. This helps the human to make less
efforts to more smart and easy way in farming.
Smart Vertical Farm using Internet of Things (IoT)
is network featuring interconnected devices making a
physical world transparent with less human effort.
Submerging of this technology in the field of agriculture is
bringing enormous changes. By the end of 2050, world
population reaches 9.7 billion with additional land of 109
million needed if conventional farming practices are
continued [8]. Until 2050, the human population grows to
90% of them in developing countries (UN, 2013). This
unprecedented explosion and growth of mega-cities
worldwide may prove unsustainable and ecologically
disastrous [9].
Vertical farms could produce crops that are grown
with an incredible contained environment that can be
described as genetic engineering in agriculture. Agriculture
is very important to the population and agriculture
advantage is quite obvious from the perspective of the
population. Vertical farming allows areas with the mainland
to return to the natural landscape. It can also reduce pest
populations. Vertical farming can take advantage of the
available and limited spaces that are idle or unused in the
developed and advanced city. The existence of vertical
farming allows food to be produced throughout the year.
Also, it can create an environment that encourages
sustainable urban life and good health for those who have
chosen to live in the city. In the future, agriculture will no
longer focus only on rural areas but more on agriculture in
the city [10]. In the agricultural aspects, Internet of things is a
new trend in farming. This helps the human to make less
efforts to more smart and easy way in farming.
IoT is a most used promising technology driver for
automation and control in the market. It has been
extensively researched over the past couple of years. Thus
by using the IoT we can increase the crop yield as we can
monitor the rainfall, soil moisture, temperature and humidity
, thus can take the proper measures to take care of the crops
and provide the required amount of nutrition at the proper
time [11]. IoT in agriculture and farming focus is on
automating all the aspects of farming and agricultural
methods to make the process more efficient and effective
[12]
.
Using the Internet of Things (IoT) in the vertical farming
implementation can change the direction of agricultural
industry brilliantly in IT adoption and allows farmers to
have more control in facing enormous challenges and reduce
the percentage of harmful risks such as poisonous pesticides
and hazardous chemicals in their plantation [13].
Vertical farms come in different shapes and sizes,
from simple two-level or wall-mounted systems to large
warehouses several stories tall. But all vertical farms use
one of three soil-free systems for providing nutrients to
plants—hydroponic, aeroponic, or aquaponic [14]. There are
lots of ways to achieved vertical farming, it depends on what
type of vertical farming you want to use. This vertical
farming don’t actually use soil in growing the plants. When
practicing vertical farming, most of the farmers would like
to monitor the farming conditions, and yet limited
knowledge on data management have forced them to
investigate plant conditions with naked eyes [15]. Therefore,
vertical farming monitoring system with Internet of Thing
(IoT) is introduced as a platform to collect data and
visualize it through a web-based applications. It is a more
convenient way to keep track on the vertical farming
performance, and contribute to the research and
development on agriculture field with real case data
analysis. With the help of the system, a reliable environment
for farming activities could be formed. Consequently, crops
are grown under a controlled surrounding, and get rid of the
dangers caused by extreme weather such as droughts and
floods [16].
Vertical farming is a wonderful way to make the
most of limited outdoor space. You can easily transform a
small backyard or balcony into a thriving fruit and vegetable
patch. Beyond their space-saving capability, there are
additional advantages to vertical gardens; plants will receive
much greater exposure to sun and oxygen and be protected
from many garden pests, like slugs [17]. Inside the vertical
farming they develop systems that can grow a plant with an
artificial light mostly the color of the light is violet. This
plants needed photosynthesis to grow like green leafy plants
lettuce, cabbage, spinach, etc. but in the vertical farming
they usually didn’t use soil instead they use hydroponics,
aeroponics or aquaponic system which means they can grow
without the soil instead the water has minerals that could
satisfied the needed vitamins of the plants. There is a plant
that doesn’t need a sunlight to make it grow. All it needs are
water to moist the surrounding and a closed dark area, the
Mungbean Sprouts.
Sprouts, also known as living vegetables refers to
the use of plants or other vegetative seed, cultivate edible
shoots, seedlings under certain conditions, tender shoots
wait for vegetables. Its products are clean and pollution-free,
pollution-free green, nutrient-rich, unique flavor, fragrance
crisp palatability, and nutritional value greatly enhanced
after seed germination, the majority of consumers [18].
The seeds and sprouts of mungbean are very
common cruise in Asia. Evidence showed that bioactive
compounds in mung bean have emerged as an increasing
scientific interest due to their role in the prevention of
degenerative diseases [19]. Mungbean sprouts (Vigna radiata)
are an interesting and nutritious food. They have been used
by the Chinese for centuries, and now they are now widely
accepted in our diet. This plant is very easy to harvest and
plant, but it needs to monitor for around twice or thrice a
day to water it to avoid droughts in the plant [20].

Theoretical Framework
This study was anchored on the idea of Dr.
Dickson Despommier, a professor at Columbia University
US, is known as the Father of Vertical Farming concept. He
claimed work titled “Vertical Farm-feeding the World in the
21st century”. It is estimated that the crops grown in vertical
farms use 95% less water (that too is recyclable)[21]. Vertical
Farming is actually a rather old idea. Indigenous people
used vertically layered growing techniques like the rice
terraces of East Asia. The term Vertical Farming was coined
by American geologist Gilbert Ellis Bailey in 1915. In 1999,
Dickson Despommier, a professor at New York’s Columbia
University, popularized the modern idea of vertical farming,
building upon the idea together with his students [22].
By 2050, the UN predicts that the global population
will surpass 9 billion people. A rapidly growing global
population and increasingly limited resources are making
the technique more attractive than ever. The concept of the
vertical farm arose in Dr. Dickson Despommier’s classroom
in 1999 as a theoretical construct on how to deal with a wide
variety of environmental issues, specifically how to change
the way we grow food. From Dr. Despommier and his
student’s initial idea of “rooftop farming”, the cultivation of
plants on flat roofs, the class developed a high-rise concept.
The students calculated that roofed-based rice growing
would be able to feed, at most, 2% of Manhattan’s
population. “If it can’t be done using rooftops, why don’t we
just grow the crops inside the building?”Despommier asked
himself. “We already know how to cultivate and water
plants indoors? [23].