The next agricultural revolution: ICT,

and Automation

Vasileios Vallas
Vasileios.vallas@planthive.com
Twitter: @MrDoubleV
 A concrete answer to anyone willing to become an urban
farmer with a minimal time investment and without needing to
be an horticultural expert
 Remote sensing module: Hive Vision
What makes us different
Hive vision: plant
health diagnostics
through Machine
Learning
ICT allowed our project to come into existence

• Forums, tutorials, GitHub;

• Raspberry Pi, Arduino and sensors
• Guides on hydroponics and generally on how to grow plants
 Agricultural revolutions

• Transition from hunting to gathering (10.000 BC)

• Arab agricultural revolution (8th - 13th century)
• British agricultural revolution (17th – 19th century)
• Scottish agricultural revolution (17th – 19th century)
• Third agricultural revolution / Green revolution (1930s – 1960s)
• Next agricultural revolution - ICT, Automation, Novel Farm Systems
 The renaissance of hydroponics

• During the 1600’s, several techniques were used to protect horticultural crops
against the cold
• Glass lanterns, bell jars, hot beds covered in glass
• Greenhouse food production established after the introduction of polyethylene in
1948
• First use of computers by greenhouse growers
• Since the past 10-20 years, there has been a renewed interest in hydroponics and
CEA

Source: https://cals.arizona.edu/hydroponictomatoes/future.htm
 How ICT and automation are impacting
agriculture and CEA
• Global transformational opportunity
• Better research
• Technological democratization & wider/faster distribution of knowledge
• Faster development and adoption of automation
• Traceability
• Crop monitoring – drones, cameras and satellite imagery
• AI applications
 The Internet as a learning platform

• A new generation of vertical farmers is being brewed

• Forums
• MOOCS
• Vocational training seminars
 The Internet as a marketplace

• A lot of CEA players conduct their business mostly or exclusively

online!
• Millennials have an increasingly high interest in house plants and urban
farming
 Data management and remote monitoring

• Crop management software

• Remote sensors and control systems
• Labor reduction
• Better crop and yield management
• Better understanding of plant physiology and pathology
ICT and automation in Novel Food Production
Systems
• Renewed interest in Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) /
vertical farming, AMI, Algae
• Biggest challenge of CEA is the amount of energy used
• Large scale adoption of circular farming systems is unthinkable
without ICT and Data management.
• Labor intensive process
• heavy logistics
 AI in Data mining: Predictive technologies

• Artificial intelligence applications in farming

• Yield prediction
• Infection and infestation predictions
• Energy consumption minimization
• Climate and light recipes: Expressing certain physiological features thanks to
particular nutrition, climate conditions and light spectrum
 From open field to deep space

• Deep space exploration goes hand-in-hand with space farming and

CEA
• Data harvested from CEA will contribute in establishing standards for crop-
growing in outer space
• Climate and light recipes will serve in meeting nutrition and food supplement
quantity levels for space crews

Source: https://www.nasa.gov/
Your data matter !
Thank you for your attention!

Your data matter ! Vasileios Vallas

Vasileios.vallas@planthive.com
Twitter: @MrDoubleV