SMART FARMING
Tools To Increase Farm Yield, Tools To Serve, Tools To Engage
We are blessed to be working with the Poznan Supercomputing & Networking Center who has helped build a collaborative, information-sharing, farm optimization and solidarity portal. This technology will enable real time weather monitoring, soil monitoring and crop monitoring to impnrove sweet potato yields. This is an example of how the Church can leverage the latest technology -- known as the Internet of Things (IOT) -- to support Corporal Works of Mercy and equip God's children globally.
The soil sensor is the EDYN sensor. (www.edyn.com) It monitors the moisture in the ground and alerts us to the need to water and helps avoid over watering. It monitors the nutrition in the ground and indicates whether we should add fertilzer or compost. It monitors the sunlight to make sure there's suffiient sun reaching the plants. And it monitors the humidity in the air. Edyn has a large database of plants and what they require to grow optimially, and the sensor matches the in-ground conditions to those in the database. In this instance, St. Matthew can avoid overwatering the sweet potato crop.
This site also has a web cam for streaming which also includes a live microphone and speaker capability to make solidarity even more effective, engaging and personally enriching for all involved.
This portal also integrates live weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA.gov). This information, coupled with the live sensor data, can help us anticipate conditions and plan and respond accordingly, which should help to optimize the harvest.
Young adults, in particular, will enjoy and benefit from engaging with this advanced technology -- which can even help them in the pursuit of jobs. This should encourage them to view the Church as an innovative, technology-saavy, problem solver for humanity.