Smart Nutrition Management: an IoT Solution for Sustainable and Precision Agriculture

Abstract

The swift implementation of hydroponic gardening as a soilless agricultural technique has underscored the essential requirement for meticulous nutrient control to guarantee plant vitality and yield. Conventional manual monitoring frequently results in discrepancies in nutrient levels, potentially causing crop failure. This research tackles these problems by creating an automated monitoring system that incorporates Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. The suggested system employs pH sensors and analogue Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) sensors to continually monitor water acidity, Electrical Conductivity (EC) values, and the concentration of dissolved solids in the nutrient reservoir. A specialised mechanism is included to automate the agitation of AB Mix nutrition, guaranteeing a uniform distribution of minerals. The technology entails the integration of these sensors with a microcontroller to facilitate real-time data transmission and remote monitoring. The findings demonstrate that the technology markedly improves the accuracy of nutrient administration and reduces human error in sustaining optimal growth circumstances. This technology offers a dependable solution for real-time tracking, mitigating the risk of planting failures and enhancing resource efficiency in smart agricultural settings. This system functions as a pragmatic execution of automated agriculture, providing a scalable framework for both industrial and community-oriented hydroponic projects. This study implements an autonomous IoT-based nutrient monitoring and control system for hydroponic agriculture, integrating pH, TDS, temperature, humidity, and solution volume sensing with a custom mobile application. The system was validated across two consecutive cultivation cycles, demonstrating its capability to detect nutrient degradation and solution instability, thereby supporting timely nutrient management decisions and reducing manual intervention.