Bell Pepper! Precision Agriculture Technology In Polytunnels.
Introduction
Sri Lanka, categorized as the lower middle income country beside agricultural contribution serving as the backbone of the country’s economy comprises the labor force employment rates dedicated up to 28 percentage, that consists small-scale farmers, the individuals, responsible for generating the bigger proportions of the Island’s agricultural outputs. (SMEs) recognized as Small and Medium Scale Enterprises have been inaugurated in many industrial aspects of the country, where agri-businesses sector of the SMEs have widely engaged it’s farmers in the cultivation of diverse crop varieties to build their foundations of livelihood. Within the framework of SMEs agribusiness domain, the negative traits and hindrances involved in level of technological availability, insufficiency in the technical and administrative skills, in pursuits of, product development in terms of quality, enhancement in the production thresholds and others necessitated activities; have had led to substantial constraints on the cultivation production rates and the productivity of the specified sector compounded with cost increments and extraneous barriers, leading to gradual detrimental influences on the growth and expansion of the small and medium scale enterprises in the agricultural industry of the country.
Business Case
The conception of the possible challenges from the standpoint of technological respects faced by the SMEs, proceeded into the supportive collaboration of the Department Of Agriculture with SenzAgro Solutions, earned their recognition, of being the pioneers in the agriculture technology in Sri Lanka and the transformational digitized sets of actions that has revolutionized many large scale businesses, and individual farmers in the processes of crop cultivation through the augmentation of sustainable agri practices.
The SME Farmers from the region of Ratnapura, have actively involved themselves for years in the cultivation and production of bell pepper (also known as capsicum) crop varieties under polytunnels infrastructures. The enclosed environment have fashioned the beneficiary condition to the growers with the minimalization on the environmental, diseases, and pest burdens along with the provision of extended cultivar seasons. Nevertheless, the deficiency in the management of water inside the tunnel environment have incurred to build an unfriendly criteria have crafted the bitter side of the tunnel cultivation. Hence, Data Driven Climate Smart Irrigation approach was ushered into tunnel cultivation culture in accordance of resolving the complications.
Actions Taken.
With references to the above scenario, SenzAgro Solutions’ digitized Smart Irrigation System and its Practices, over the customary conventional mechanisms, were introduced into the SMEs Farmers’ Polytunnels. The measures taken in order to accomplish a meliorated water management system through smart irrigation, encompassed the utilization of high-tech sensors “Digital Plant Twin”, that mimics as a plant by itself, designed to encapsulate and stream the real-time data of the respective extent of the agri-space to facilitate the appropriation of the irrigation essentials, with subsequent amassed sets of data, leveraged to the comparison of benchmark parameters of the bell pepper crops in the platform of Smart Farming application installed in handheld devices, constructing the possibilities of irrigation automation and remote access regulations through motor valve controllers that coordinates in the accurate and uniformed water distribution.
Results
The inception of the 24*7 precision irrigation technology system paired with crop specifically tailor-made algorithmized handheld device application to the implementation of precise and high-throughput irrigation practices have had established a criterion of efficacious maintenance in the meticulous water management. The phenomenal outcome of the system successfully reached the satisfaction of the SME farmers, through the fulfillment of the expectations of paramountcy in the bell pepper crop quality, sustainability in the cultivation, enrichment in the livelihoods of the farmers, food security, upgradation in the production and productivity, have indeed been achieved with SenzAgro’s Climate Smart Irrigation Data Driven System combined with Departmental support Of Agriculture. This transformational quality of the system have ascertained the hope of the farmer to a better future through Agriculture Technology.
