A Taiwanese tech company is using the artificial intelligence of things to help farmers. A team has developed a system that uses a field sensor, local weather station and time-lapse camera to collect and analyze agricultural data. Farmers can now use their smartphones to monitor their fields. FTV reporter Stephany Yang has the details.
The weather in Taiwan is very different at different parts of the island, and it can be hard to predict. To help farmers stay ahead of the elements, a Taiwanese tech company developed a smart farming system called Agriweather. The system harnesses data from a smart weather station. With just a mobile phone, farmers can access weather station data and photos of their own fields. If there is heavy rainfall in the field, excessive drought and other agricultural issues, farmers will be alerted to them on the screen.
Riddler Lu
Founder
The weather station provides data such as wind direction, wind speed, temperature and humidity, light, rainfall, etc. With a time-lapse camera, it will take a picture every hour. Photos taken over a period of time are knitted together into a time-lapse video. This data is all related to the growth of the crops.
Not only do farmers have to pay close attention to weather conditions, the crop planting environment is also an important factor that farmers must monitor. A field sensor developed by the team can collect soil-related information such as soil temperature, water content, field temperature, humidity, conductivity and other information. The system can track the status of each field, predict growth periods and provide real-time cultivation suggestions to help farmers in the field.
Hsieh Chia-yu
Farmer
With this machine, I can easily track the soil moisture content of the tea plantation or the electrical conductivity of the soil even when I''m at home. Another problem we encountered before involved irrigation – we didn’t know when to irrigate. Now that we have this system, we can grasp which period of time is best for watering the tea plants. This can also help save water.
This smart farming management system harnesses expertise from several industries.
Riddler Lu
Founder
Once we have the AIoT data, the next step is figuring out how to use it. We need to collaborate with many different experts during this process, because there are many different crops. We have established close cooperative ties with Agricultural Research and Extension Stations across Taiwan, with the Council of Agriculture, and university professors. In the past, we were able to solve many problems using traditional experience. But now that we have the problem of climate change, much traditional experience is no longer applicable.
The smart agricultural system is currently used on 150 fields. Its developers hope to promote sustainable agriculture, and to strengthen the network between agricultural experts, farmers and consumers.