RAISE

Inspiration

Approximately 2.6 billion people, almost 40% of the world’s population, depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Almost half of the world population lives in rural areas. 83% are smallholders who cultivate plots of land no bigger than 2 hectares. However, it is these small farms that produce the largest amounts of food (in Asia, 80%) and cultivate around 60% of the arable land worldwide - often soils that are less fertile and insufficiently irrigated. On the other hand, food security has posed a great concern globally, as we are going to feed 9 billion people by the year 2050.

Having come across with these farmers personally, we came to realize that mobile technologies might be a good solution to help them since 40% of them now own a smartphone. Existing technologies are costly and involve large communication mesh networks over hundreds of acres. Such networks are mainly targeted towards tech-savvy western farmers, who also face a labour shortage and often own large amounts of land. These solutions are not suitable for small-sized family owned farms, which are the norm in Asia. Asian farmers also face a excess supply of labour that can be tapped on.

We envisioned a better future where farmers could better manage their farms on a day-to-day basis by using low-cost IoT devices and simple mobile software.

What it does

The system allows farmers to measure and log the water and nutrient levels of different plots on his land. The farmers can place the sensors around the farm that records data over a period of up to 2 days at hourly intervals.

Collection of data is simple and easy. Farmers simply have to walk around their farm with the app, and the sensors will automatically transmit location and soil information to the phone. When it is convenient (with internet access) data can be uploaded into the cloud and together with weather APIs, the app can suggest the amount of water to irrigate on each plot of land. In future, when nutrient sensors are added, the amount of fertilizers can be included as well.

The cloud also be an objective method for farmers to share their crop data with insurance companies. Insurance companies would be able to amass data from individual small-scale farmers, and use it for their BI&A to better forecast their risk. With more granular data, they will be able adjust their risk premium for individual farmers.

As it is part of their routine to walk the ground to do do their tasks, such as checking for pest, pruning, etc, this system can be easily integrated into their work schedule/flow at a low cost.

How we built it

Sensors We are able to use the RedBear MicroBlend (an Arduino-compatiable board with BLE capabilities) to read the soil sensors and push data through Bluetooth LE. The Chirp Soil Sensor was used to gather data regarding the soil moisture, temperature and ambient light intensity.

App The app was created with EvoThings, a prototyping tool for mobile apps and IoT.

Challenges we ran into

It was our first time trying to code with Android and were picking up the basics during the hackathon. However, we were unable to get the Bluetooth LE to communicate with Android.

We switched to EvoThings and although we managed to get the Bluetooth communication working, we had less flexibility with creating a more integrated experience.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

-We are able to use the RedBear MicroBlend (an Arduino with BLE capabilities) to read the soil sensors and push data through Bluetooth.

-Using EvoThings, we managed to get our app running in 2 hours.

What we learned

A good part of our time was spent trying to pick up android app development. It was a good introduction. However, in the interest of time, we had to switch to EvoThings which had a better library to deal with Bluetooth LE

What's next for Raise

We are going to implement various sensors in one fruits farm in Malaysia to see how it could help farmers in better managing their farms. We would like to incorporate more sensors, and possible mount the whole system on an AGV. For example including a thermal imaging camera will allow farmers to monitor the temperatures of plants - which will indicate the health of the plants (e.g. the plants will be hotter if they are infected).