Inspiration
Land limitations are one of the obstacles that occur in Indonesia, especially in urban areas. Numerous agricultural lands have been converted into residential or industrial sectors. The reduction in agricultural land in urban areas has an impact on decreasing food production to meet the needs that continue to increase every year. By 2030, Indonesia targets to achieve food security and sustainable agricultural cultivation as one of the goals of the SDGs. Nevertheless, the land limitations and the resulting impacts may limit this. Hydroponics is a method of plant cultivation that can be a solution for food security in urban areas because hydroponics does not require soil and large areas. With advanced technology, the hydroponics system makes people grow plants independently, healthier and easier.
What it does
On this issue, we aspire to educate urban communities by encouraging people to start urban farming by planting hydroponically in their own homes. The characteristics of urban people who tend to be busy finally inspired us to make automated hydroponic systems. So that people can still comfortably produce food independently. This hydroponic automation is equipped with a nutrient sensor that can control the nutrients so that plants will not lack or excess nutrients. In addition, we developed mobile apps with information about how to cultivate the plants, and monitor plant development remotely.
How we built it
Our system is built using an Arduino Uno board which will control all the work of all components that are integrated into Arduino. The programming logic or coding will be made in the Arduino IDE software which has a C language base. The program that has been created will be embedded into the Arduino Uno board so that all integrated components will work according to the coding that has been made.
Challenges we ran into
The challenge encountered in building hydroponic automation is that sometimes the coding made does not sync with the mechanization tools used because the tools have different specifications. In addition, the trial faced is the stability of the sensor which is less accurate due to the power.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
At this time in Indonesia, there are very few start-ups in the field of agricultural technology, especially hydroponics. We are a pioneering start-up of hydroponic in Indonesia, especially in the application of the Internet of Things and hydroponic automation.
What we learned
We discovered that all sensors have various specifications and cannot conduct sensors the same way
What's next for HydroPHO
In the future, we will develop the hydroponic automation system more complicated, such as adding a pH meter, temperature, humidity, and light intensity. We believe this hydroponic system can be further developed as a start-up, especially in a modern hydroponic system integrated with technology. So that it can help people produce food independently also in a larger scope, Indonesia can achieve food security and create sustainable agriculture as one of the SDGs goals by 2030.
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