Sensors and smart farming using IoT: A review on potential applications in horticultural crops

Horticulture farming is a subset of agriculture, contributing approximately 30% of the agricultural GDP in India. The nutritional benefits of horticultural crops such as fruits, vegetables, and mushrooms play an important role in daily life. With the ever-increasing demand for food, the horticultural industry faces new challenges that require innovative and sustainable solutions. This has led to a significant shift towards technology-driven solutions to address the challenges of a growing population in a sustainable way. The Internet of Things (IoT), a promising technology in smart farming, greatly helps in real-time monitoring of plant growth status and facilitates faster decisions under challenging circumstances. Smart farming in horticultural crops relies on a range of components including sensors, actuators, microcontrollers, and cloud storage for the effective implementation of IoT. These components work together to collect and store data, which can be utilized to optimize the allocation of input resources. This review discusses how components of smart farming can improve resource management, crop yields, and the quality of production of horticultural crops, along with its applications and development in this area.