IoT has innumerable benefits for farming, one of them being making use of smart greenhouses.

Smart Greenhouse farming is a method of farming that increases the yield of vegetables, fruits, crops etc. A greenhouse is a glass building in which plants that need protection from cold weather are grown. They control the environmental temperature through human intervention to help the crops thrive and bloom. As human intervention leads to production and energy loss, and increases labor cost, they can be counter-productive. A smart greenhouse designed with the help of IoT, on the other hand, intelligently monitors and controls the climate, eliminating the need for human intervention.

For controlling the environment, a smart greenhouse uses different sensors that measure environmental parameters as per the plant requirement and accordingly controls the environment. A cloud server can be set up for remotely accessing the smart greenhouse when it is connected using IoT.

This method does away with the need for constant human monitoring. Within the greenhouse, the cloud server enables data processing and thus controls the environment to best suit the crops, all with a simple tap on a smartphone screen. This method provides a cost-effective solution to farmers with little or no human intervention.

Companies are increasingly providing agricultural services through smart greenhouses which leverage the IoT technology. They build modern and affordable smart greenhouses using solar-powered IoT sensors. These sensors are capable of sending SMSs to farmers to monitor conditions within the greenhouse and even the level of water consumption. Farmers equipped with these state-of-the-art technologies, are now capable of providing automatic irrigation in their farms.

In short the IoT sensors in the greenhouse can provide a farmer information on light levels, pressure, humidity and temperature within the greenhouse. These sensors can automatically open a window, turn on lights, control a heater, or turn on a fan, all through a WiFi signal. This is a real boon for modern agriculture.