Technological Transformation and Sustainable Agriculture: Automation Supported Home-Type Hydroponic Production System Application

Yıl 2025, Cilt: 8 Sayı: 4, 533 - 547, 15.07.2025

Muhammed Akif Yenikaya , Onur Oktaysoy , Gökhan Kerse

https://doi.org/10.47115/bsagriculture.1656377

Öz

Hydroponic farming systems, which offer sustainable solutions to the global water and food crisis, provide less water consumption and higher productivity compared to traditional farming methods. This study examines the contribution of automation-supported home-type hydroponic production systems to agricultural sustainability. The main purpose of the study is to compare automated and non-automated hydroponic systems in terms of plant growth rates, productivity and environmental effects and to reveal the advantages provided by automation. In the experimental application conducted within the scope of the research, the development of lettuce plants was observed for four weeks and the productivity differences of the two systems were analyzed. The results show that automation-supported systems provide more balanced growth compared to manually controlled systems, optimize nutrient and water use and accelerate the growth process of the plants. In addition, these systems reduce the margin of error in agricultural processes by minimizing human intervention. In the study, it was determined that hydroponic systems make significant contributions to environmental sustainability with low water consumption and enable local food production by encouraging urban agriculture. This research contributes to both academic literature and sectoral applications, revealing that automated hydroponic systems can be an effective alternative in food production. The findings highlight the importance of disseminating innovative practices for sustainable agriculture that save water and energy. The study is expected to form the basis for future research on hydroponic farming systems.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Digital transformation , Sustainability , Hydroponic agriculture , Home agriculture , Automation supported hydroponic system

Etik Beyan

Ethics committee approval was not required for this study because of there was no study on animals or humans.

Destekleyen Kurum

Kafkas University - Scientific Research Projects Unit

Proje Numarası

2023-SB-71

Teşekkür

This study is based on data derived from the project numbered 2023-SB-71, supported by the Scientific Research Projects Unit of Kafkas University. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Kafkas University Scientific Research Projects Unit for their generous funding and support, which enabled this research.

Kaynakça

• Aliac CJG, Maravillas E. 2018. IOT hydroponics management system. In: 2018 IEEE 10th Int Conf Humanoid Nanotechnol Inf Technol Commun Control Environ Manag (HNICEM), pp: 1-5.
• Altieri MA, Nicholls CI. 2017. The adaptation and mitigation potential of traditional agriculture in a changing climate. Clim Change, 140: 33-45.
• Amalfitano C, Del Vacchio L, Somma S, Cuciniello A, Caruso G. 2017. Effects of cultural cycle and nutrient solution electrical conductivity on plant growth, yield and fruit quality of 'Friariello' pepper grown in hydroponics. Hortic Sci, 44(2), pp:54-59.
• Aosong Electronics. 2023. DHT21 Temperature and Humidity Sensor Datasheet. Aosong Electronics Co., Ltd. (accessed date: March 10, 2025). Available at: https://www.aosong.com
• Atlas Scientific. 2024a. EZO-pH Circuit Datasheet. Atlas Scientific. (accessed date: March 10, 2025). Available at: https://www.atlas-scientific.com
• Atlas Scientific. 2024b. EZO-EC Circuit Datasheet. Atlas Scientific. (accessed date: March 10, 2025). Available at: https://www.atlas-scientific.com
• Ayeni O, Olagoke-Komolafe O. 2024. Environmental impact of modern agricultural practices: Strategies for reducing carbon footprint and promoting conservation. Int J Manag Entrep Res, 6(9), pp:56-64.
• Beşirli G, Sönmez İ, Albayrak B, Polat Z. 2021. Organik marul yetiştiriciliği. T.C. Tarım ve Orman Bakanlığı, Tarımsal Araştırmalar ve Politikalar Genel Müdürlüğü, pp: 45.
• Bunyuth Y, Mardy S. 2024. Hydroponic systems: an overview of benefits, challenges, and future prospects. Indones J Soc Econ Agric Policy, 1(1): 10-18.
• Espressif Systems. 2023. ESP32 Technical Reference Manual. Espressif Systems. (accessed date: March 10, 2025). Available at: https://www.espressif.com
• FAO. 2023. The State of Food and Agriculture 2023: Revealing the True Cost of Food to Transform Agrifood Systems. FAO, Rome. (accessed date: March 10, 2025). Available at: https://openknowledge.fao.org/items/1516eb79-8b43-400e-b3cb-130fd70853b0
• Farooq MS, Riaz S, Helou MA, Khan FS, Abid A. 2022. A survey on IoT in agriculture for the implementation of greenhouse farming. IEEE Access, 10: 1-15.
• Fedulova S, Zadoia A, Shkura I, Komirna V, Savchenko M. 2023. Determining the impact of virtual water scarcity risk on the global food crisis 2022 as a result of hostilities. East-Eur J Enterp Technol, 1(13): 121.
• Gakhar A. 2021. Sustainable alternative farming techniques—an Indian perspective. Plant Arch, 21(1), pp:45-56.
• Gruda NS. 2019. Increasing sustainability of growing media constituents and stand-alone substrates in soilless culture systems. Agronomy, 9(6): 298.
• Heaney MB. 2017. Electrical conductivity. In: Webster JG (ed.), Measurement, Instrumentation, and Sensors Handbook. CRC Press, London, UK, pp:57-59.
• Huang Z, Hejazi M, Tang Q, Vernon CR, Liu Y, Chen M, Calvin K. 2019. Global agricultural green and blue water consumption under future climate and land use changes. J Hydrol, 574: 242-256.
• Jain S, Kaur M. 2024. Automated vs. semi-automated hydroponics: quantifying automation effects on plant growth. Int J Electr Comput Eng Syst, 15(8): 687-694.
• Jayachandran A, Scholar PR, Jain S, Saini S, Maurya P, Subhasmita S, Kumar K, Scholar SP, Kiran B. 2022. Hydroponics: an art of soil less farming. Pharma Innov J, 11(9): 1049-1053.
• Kannan M, Elavarasan G, Balamurugan A, Dhanusiya B, Freedon D. 2022. Hydroponic farming–A state of art for the future agriculture. Mater Today Proc, 68: 2163-2166.
• Kheirinejad S, Bozorg-Haddad O, Gude VG. 2021. The water, food and energy nexus. In: Water Resources. Springer, Cham, pp: 175.
• Kumar S, Kumar S, Lal J. 2023. Assessing opportunities and difficulties in hydroponic farming. Bhartiya Krishi Anusandhan Patrika, 38(1): 56-64.
• Kumar S, Singh M, Yadav KK, Singh PK. 2021. Opportunities and constraints in hydroponic crop production systems: a review. Environ Conserv J, 22(3): 401-408.
• Kumari R, Kumar R. 2019. Aeroponics: A review on modern agriculture technology. Indian Farmer, 6(4): 286-292.
• Kuncoro CBD, Asyikin MBZ, Amaris A. 2021. Development of an automation system for nutrient film technique hydroponic environment. In: Proc 2nd Int Semin Sci Appl Technol (ISSAT 2021), pp: 437-443.
• Mahajan P, Gupta S, Sachdeva S. 2022. Automation in hydroponic systems: a sustainable pathway to modern farming. In: Proc 2022 IEEE Int Conf Serv Oper Logist Inform (SOLI), pp: 1-7.
• Maldonado AIL, Reyes JMM, Breceda HF, Fuentes HR, Contreras JAV, Maldonado UL. 2019. Automation and robotics used in hydroponic system. Urban Horticulture, London, UK, pp: 23-26.
• Mielcarek A, Kłobukowska K, Rodziewicz J, Janczukowicz W, Bryszewski KŁ. 2024. Water nutrient management in soilless plant cultivation versus sustainability. Sustainability, 16(1): 152.
• Mohammed SB, Sookoo R. 2016. Nutrient film technique for commercial production. Agric Sci Res J, 6(11): 269-274.
• Nalwade R, Mote T. 2017. Hydroponics farming. In: Proc 2017 Int Conf Trends Electron Inform (ICEI), pp: 645-650.
• Nursyahid A, Setyawan TA, Sa’diyah K, Wardihani ED, Helmy H, Hasan A. 2021. Analysis of Deep Water Culture (DWC) hydroponic nutrient solution level control systems. IOP Conf Ser Mater Sci Eng, 1108(1): 012032.
• Nwulu N, Suka D, Dogo E. 2021. Automated hydroponic system integrated with an Android smartphone application. In: Examining the Impact of Deep Learning and IoT on Multi-Industry Applications. IGI Global, pp: 227-248.
• Paige K, Gell L. 2023. Solving food insecurity and agricultural challenges with hydroponics. J Student Res, 12(4), pp:56-58.
• Palande V, Zaheer A, George K. 2018. Fully automated hydroponic system for indoor plant growth. Procedia Comput Sci, 129: 482-488.
• Pinto R, Patil D, Joseph N, Barreto C, Khan S. 2024. Smart agriculture using IoT. Int J Multidiscip Res, 6(3), pp:125-135.
• Putra SD, Heriansyah H, Cahyadi EF, Anggriani K, Jaya MHIS. 2024. Development of smart hydroponics system using AI-based sensing. J Infotel, 16(3): 474-485.
• Reddy KJ, Mishra R, Sreekumar G, Saikanth DRK. 2023. Future of hydroponics in sustainable agriculture. Adv Farm Technol, 108.
• Resh HM. 2022. Hydroponic food production: A definitive guidebook for the advanced home gardener and the commercial hydroponic grower. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp: 621.
• Reza MN, Lee KH, Karim MR, Haque MA, Bicamumakuba E, Dey PK, Chung SO. 2025. Trends of soil and solution nutrient sensing for open field and hydroponic cultivation in facilitated smart agriculture. Sensors (Basel), 25(2): 453.
• RoboticsBD. 2023. HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor Datasheet. Robotics Bangladesh. (accessed date: March 10, 2025). Available at: https://roboticsbd.com
• Sahoo J. 2021. Optimal secure placement of IoT applications for smart farming. In: 2021 8th Int Conf Internet Things: Syst Manag Secur, pp: 1-6.
• Savvas D, Gruda N. 2018. Application of soilless culture technologies in the modern greenhouse industry—a review. Eur J Hortic Sci, 83(5): 280-293.
• Shareef U, Rehman AU, Ahmad R. 2024. A systematic literature review on parameters optimization for smart hydroponic systems. AI, 5(3): 1517-1533.
• Siregar S, Sari MI, Jauhari R. 2016. Automation system hydroponic using smart solar power plant unit. J Teknol, 78(5-7).
• Soussi M, Chaibi MT, Buchholz M, Saghrouni Z. 2022. Comprehensive review on climate control and cooling systems in greenhouses under hot and arid conditions. Agronomy, 12(3): 626.
• Srivani P, Manjula SH. 2019. A controlled environment agriculture with hydroponics: variants, parameters, methodologies and challenges for smart farming. In: 2019 Int Conf Inf Process (ICINPRO), pp: 1-8.
• Topçuoğlu E, Kavak O, Kaygın E. 2022. Analysis of MHRS as a management information system in health with technology acceptance model. Int J Bus Sci Appl (ULISBUD), 2(1): 1-16.
• Velasco-Muñoz JF, Aznar-Sánchez JA, Belmonte-Ureña LJ, Román-Sánchez IM. 2018. Sustainable water use in agriculture: A review of worldwide research. Sustainability, 10(4): 1084.
• Waller P, Yitayew M. 2016. Hydroponic irrigation systems. J Irrig Drain Eng, 142(4): 369-386.