Design and Development of Smart Agricultural Greenhouse

Food insecurity across the globe has necessitated the need to optimize crops productivity through automation and Internet of Things (IoT). This research was carried out to develop a smart greenhouse system where the soil nutrient level, air temperature and soil moisture content can be closely monitored through sensors and the Internet. The sensors – major input components of the structure – sent information to a NodeMCU ESP8266 microcontroller for interpretation, configuration and necessary actions by the output components of the smart structure. The output components of the smart structure are the liquid-crystal display (LCD), water pump, fan, heater and relay modules, while the C++ programming language was used. Remarkably, the intelligence aspect of the smart greenhouse is built on the smart algorithm. Based on the performance evaluation of the various system units, the irrigation, cooling, heating and fertilization units have an accuracy of 85%, 90%, 90% and 85% respectively. Interestingly, the performance rating of the prototype was very encouraging, which makes this smart system a reliable material to combat global food insecurity.