Fertilization of soil is the backbone of modern agriculture. As the global population continues to skyrocket, so too must the productivity of farms across the world to keep up with demand. Aggressive use of fertilizers to increase the core nutrients in soil – nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium – has proved to be vital in maintaining high agricultural output. However, the application of fertilizers is anything but precise – farmers often rely on experience rather than raw data to decide when and what to use. The uncontrolled addition of these often chemical-based nutrients results in skewed bacterial distribution, causing numerous problems such as acidification and salinization, ultimately catalyzing the erosion of soil. If fertilization remains unregulated, damage to soil integrity will devastate not only the agriculture industry but also the entire human population.
Team:NCTU Formosa/Project/Description
The Problem
Our Solution
Our team has developed a method to achieve precision fertilization as an alternative way to revitalize soil nutrient levels without sacrificing soil health – a “plant B”. Inspired by the dominance that bacteria exert on their environments, we attack the problem at its root by focusing on soil microbiota as a target of regulation. Our concept prioritizes maintaining balance of bacterial distribution, treating fertilizers as just one of many bio-stimulators capable of affecting said balance. Combined with machine learning and artificial intelligence, our system can accurately predict the ideal amount of bio-stimulator to apply, while our sensor device uses the internet of things (IoT) to detect when application is necessary. Plant B turns fertilization into a science and allows for optimizing crop productivity while guaranteeing environmental sustainability.
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