Internet of Things Empowered Smart Greenhouse Farming

The rapid change of climate, population explosion, and reduction of arable lands are calling for new approaches to ensure sustainable agriculture and food supply for the future. Greenhouse agriculture is considered to be a viable alternative and sustainable solution, which can combat the future food crisis by controlling the local environment and growing crops all year round, even in harsh outdoor conditions. However, greenhouse farms persist many challenges for efficient operation and management. The evolving Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, which encompass the smart sensors, devices, network topologies, big data analytics, and intelligent decision is believed to be the solution in addressing the key challenges facing the greenhouse farming, such as greenhouse local climate control, crop growth monitoring, crop harvesting and etc. This paper reviews the current greenhouse cultivation technologies as well as the state-of-the-art of IoT technologies for smart greenhouse farms. The paper also highlights the major challenges that need to be addressed.