Improving Agricultural Productivity through IoT – Based Hydroponic Systems: Literature Review & Prototype Study

The global population is projected to reach above 10 billion by 2100, leading to increased demand for food production (United Nations, 2019). The traditional agricultural sector has been adversely affected by climate change, further exacerbating the challenge of feeding the world's population (FAO, 2021). Hydroponic farming has emerged as a solution and a revolution in the agricultural field, as it allows for carefully monitored and automated cultivation of crops with various other benefits (Wang et al., 2020). IoT-based hydroponic systems offerseveralbenefits,includingreal-timemonitoringofessentialgrowing variables, such as temperature, humidity, pH level, and nutrient concentration, leading to improved crop yield (Al-Fatihahetal., 2020).Additionally, IoT- based hydroponics systems are highly automated, which reduces the workload on farmers and minimizes water usage with up to 90% savings.(Ibrahimetal.,2020).This paper aims to review the existing literature on IoT- based hydroponics systems and present a prototype to illustrate the potency of this particular approach. The study presented also provides a basic prototype of the IoT-based hydroponic system which senses various factors like temperature, humidity, and pH value and provides control over the modules attached using these factors.