Smart greenhouses, Internet of things in agriculture

When you hear 'smart greenhouses', the first thing that comes to mind is sterile laboratories with robots, where everything works on its own. In reality, it often turns out that farmers install sensors, but do not know what to do with the data, or overpay for functions that simply do not work in their climate. This is what I want to talk about - not about theory, but about what actually has to be taken into account in the field.

What is hidden behind the fashionable term 'smart greenhouses'

Marketing aside, thensmart greenhousesis, first of all, a system that can respond to changes without constant human intervention. But here a nuance arises: not all automation is useful. For example, in a project for a vegetable farm near Voronezh, we initially included full climate control, but it quickly became clear that local frosts in the spring were detected by sensors with a delay of 10–15 minutes—this is critical for tomato seedlings. We had to supplement the system with a weather station with forecasting.

What is often overlooked is thatInternet of things in agricultureis not only about collecting data, but also about interpreting it. One of our first projects in Tatarstan showed that farmers received notifications about humidity fluctuations, but did not understand exactly how to adjust watering. As a result, we added simple prompts to the platform: 'reduce watering by 15% until evening' instead of raw numbers.

By the way, about hardware. Many people still believe that a smart greenhouse is expensive equipment from Europe. In practice, it is often more profitable to use modular solutions, for example, fromShandong Linyao Intelligent Agriculture Technology Co.,Ltd. Their water and fertilizer integration kits allow you to gradually increase functionality - start with basic humidity control, then add valve control, all without completely replacing the system.

Equipment that really works in Russian conditions

In our realities, the main enemy of smart systems is not low temperatures, but voltage drops and communication quality. For example, in the Krasnodar Territory it was necessary to abandon wireless sensors in favor of wired ones in certain areas - due to interference from neighboring farms, the signal was lost during peak load hours.

Frequency automatic systems fromShandong Lingyao Co.,Ltd. In a greenhouse complex near Kazan, their water filtration equipment reduced maintenance costs by 30% - but only after we modified the design of the filters for local water with a high iron content. This is the case when ready-made technology requires mandatory adaptation.

An interesting point: sometimes a simple solution turns out to be smarter than a complex one. Instead of expensive multispectral cameras to monitor the condition of plants, one of the Stavropol farms used conventional IP cameras with image analysis - it turned out that this was enough for early detection of late blight, and the cost of the system was 4 times lower.

Integration of water and fertilizers - where people often go wrong

The most common misconception is that irrigation automation will immediately solve all problems. In fact, without precise calibration for the soil type, you can get waterlogging in some areas and lack of moisture in others. Last year, when launching a project in the Rostov region, we spent three weeks just setting up irrigation algorithms for loam - there are no universal solutions here.

There was an interesting case withremote valve controlin greenhouse farming in the Moscow region. In theory, the system worked perfectly, but in practice it turned out that employees continued to manually adjust the dampers - simply out of habit. We had to conduct separate training and implement a hint system directly on the valves.

An important nuance that is rarely written about in specifications: equipment for integrating water and fertilizers requires regular testing of not only electronics, but also mechanical parts. In the same farm near Moscow, scale damaged two electric valves during the season; now monthly cleaning has been included in the maintenance.

Design of agricultural facilities: between theory and reality

WhenShandong Linyao Intelligent Agriculture Technology Co.,Ltdoffers design of hydraulic structures; many customers expect ready-made standard solutions. But in the workssmart agricultural parksWe are faced with the fact that even within the same area, drainage requirements can differ radically. In the Lipetsk region, for example, the standard drainage scheme had to be completely revised after the first heavy rainfall.

It is especially difficult withhigh quality agricultural fields— here the temptation to automate everything leads to unnecessary costs. In one of the projects in the Belgorod region, we initially planned for full monitoring of each bed, but practice has shown that it is enough to monitor key points - savings on equipment amounted to about 40% without loss of data quality.

Funny thing: sometimes technology has to be adapted to... the human factor. On the same Belgorod farm, we installed temperature control sensors in the soil, but workers constantly touched them when weeding. The solution turned out to be simple - we moved the sensors 15 cm higher, although theoretically this reduced the accuracy of the measurements. In practice, the error turned out to be uncritical, but the equipment was preserved.

Mistakes that are best not to be repeated

The most painful lesson was learned when implementing a remote control system in a greenhouse complex in the Urals. We calculated everything perfectly - except for one thing: at -35°C, the sensor batteries discharged three times faster. We had to urgently install additional power supplies and revise the entire power supply scheme.

Another common mistake is trying to immediately implement the most complex system possible. Now we always recommend starting with a pilot zone. For example, in collaboration withShandong Lingyao Co.,LtdWe often deploy a basic set for 1-2 greenhouses first, and then scale it to the entire complex. This allows local features to be identified without high costs.

And most importantly, never skimp on staff training. Even the most advanced systemInternet of things in agricultureis useless if operators do not understand how it works. In our experience, there were cases when, due to panic, employees turned off all automation at the first failure - although the system was programmed to work autonomously in such situations.

What ultimately works in practice

To summarize, the effectivenesssmart greenhousesis determined not by technological complexity, but by the ability to solve specific problems of a particular farm. Sometimes it is enough to automate only watering and temperature control - and this already provides 20-30% resource savings.

Particularly valuable has been the approach that usesShandong Linyao Intelligent Agriculture Technology Co.,Ltd— modularity of solutions. This allows farms with different budgets to gradually introduce technologies, starting with the most critical ones.

And the last observation: the most successful projects are obtained where technological solutions are developed together with agronomists. Without an understanding of plant biology, even the most advanced IoT is useless - this has been tested in practice many times.