Smart Monitoring IoT-Based System for Hydroponic Agriculture

In India, the land of farmers, where agriculture has always been the primary occupation of the people, more than 50% of the population is still engaged in agriculture and its allied sectors. However, over the years, a significant decline has been observed in the contribution by the agriculture sector towards India's GDP. This chapter aimed towards identifying the gap between the ratio of high inputs and low yields by portraying the various limitations in traditional Indian agriculture methods and how hydroponic agriculture is the need of the hour for the growth of Indian agriculture. Hydroponic agriculture or hydroponics, around the world, has proved to be an efficient and more productive method of agriculture than geoponics (i.e., the traditional agriculture practice carried out in the soil). Although bearing a large bouquet of advantages, there are some limitations associated with it as well. This chapter aimed at overcoming these limitations to enhance this novel approach of agriculture even further.

Marching Towards a Bioeconomy

Bioeconomy has evolved as a solution to economic, social and environmental problems within and across all the sectors of world economies. It has brought about the materials technology shift from synthetics to bio-based raw materials to introduce sustainable technologies. Activities in the bioeconomy primarily involve the production of biomass from plants, animals, microorganisms and its conversion into bio-based products. Agriculture is a major component in a bioeconomy. Countries with a larger landmass have a competitive advantage in biomass production through agriculture hence a larger bioeconomy. Sri Lanka, with its limited land availability, cannot expand the land further for biomass production through traditional agriculture. The bioeconomy of Sri Lanka therefore have to move beyond traditional agriculture pursuing more scientific approaches for biomass production and conversion. The use of crops as a renewable industrial feedstock and the application of biotechnology are, therefore, indispensable for the implementation of sustainable development strategies in the country. The rich biodiversity on land and the sea of the country is still underutilized and has a great potential to be used in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. There is a pressing need in the country to create a motivated society to pursue the promising prospects offered by the bioeconomy in development.

Groundwater sustainability in a semiarid traditional irrigation piedmont supplied by high mountain streamflow

<p>Piedmont areas are globally important hydrological systems as transitional zones between mountains (headwater basins) where water is produced and adjacent plains (basins floor) where water is consumed. In arid and semiarid areas, the water availability in piedmonts have made them adequate places for rural communities’ settlement and irrigation activities. The hydrochemical processes controlling groundwater chemistry in the piedmont areas might be influenced by the interaction with the mountain streamflow, the geology, the climate and the human activities. In this study we investigated the hydrochemistry of the groundwater in the piedmont of Ourika wadi that is coming from the High-Atlas of Marrakech Mountains (central Morocco). The HCO3-Ca-Na groundwater type, inherited form the streamflow, is the primary water facies in the area. It has its origin from carbonates dissolution and silicates withering in the High-Atlas mountains. In the irrigated area, the ion exchange processes are responsible of Ca and Mg enrichment. Currently, the groundwater salinity is low and the chemical quality is excellent thanks to the seasonal groundwater recharge from the mountain streamflow and to the practiced traditional agriculture that generally uses high amounts of irrigation and low amounts chemical fertilizers. However, major concerns about groundwater sustainability arise from two parameters. Firstly, the snowmelt-driven runoff supplying the groundwater recharge in piedmonts is in continuous decrease because of the snow cover reduction observed in the last decades and forecasted in the future under climate change, likely putting more pressure on groundwater resources. Secondly, due to the growing anthropogenic activities the traditional agriculture might change to intensive agriculture using more chemicals and inducing pollution.</p>

A Visible Light Communication Channel Model for Agronomic Environments

Currently, agriculture based on agronomic greenhouses is replacing traditional agriculture. This technique reduces dependence on rain on crops. It also generates a controlled internal environment making optimal use of land and water resources. However, this environment needs more care and attention compared to traditional agriculture. To overcome this limitation, various radio frequency (RF)-based technologies can be used. Nevertheless, studies show that the use of communications in RF bands degrades crops' growth and quality. Therefore, an efficient solution is to use the visible light spectrum for communication, the main technology of which is called visible light communication (VLC). Despite numerous studies for the application of VLC in indoor environments, specific VLC systems for agronomic greenhouse environments or their channel models are not yet investigated in depth. To collaborate on state of art on this topic, we present in this paper a novel channel model that incorporates specific factors that affect the quality of VLC systems in agronomic greenhouse environments. Factors such as the random position and orientation of the transmitters and external environmental agents such as atmospheric and different noise types are considered. These components are integrated into an analytical framework by developing the mathematical model of the VLC channel. Furthermore, the analytical expressions of the received power, the signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR), and the bit error rate (BER) are obtained. A VLC system applied to an agronomic greenhouse scenario is developed through computer simulations to validate the mathematical analysis. The results show that illuminance is adequate for the efficient operation of the greenhouse. Besides, the influence of atmospheric factors and noises on the magnitude and temporal dispersion of the channel impulse response is verified. Finally, the results show the system's performance in terms of SNR and BER, observing their differences compared to a traditional indoor VLC system.