Disrupting Traditional Agriculture: The Smart Urban Farming Platform-Strategic BUS1DIB Report

Description of the idea

This report will provide insight into the concept of Smart-Urban Farming Platform. This concept can be explained as a form of smart agricultural system where advanced technologies are adopted and farm operations are conducted based on data acquired to optimise and enhance sustainability in agriculture. The technologies used in the smart urban farming process include automation, artificial intelligence (AI), drones and the Internet of Things (IoT) (Kurundkar et al., 2022).

Smart Urban farming uses sensors like soil, specific temperatures, climate and moisture level of the soil. Once the factors that determine the development of crops are thoroughly understood, the most suitable conditions can be provided for the growth of the crops. With the Internet of things, urban farming needs solar energy panels, soil moisture sensor technology, temperature sensing technology, and irrigation systems. These smart-systems can help monitor and automate the factors that need to be monitored (Kingsley et al., 2021).

This business plan of Smart Urban Farming Platform (SUFP) is supposed to address urban food insecurity, foster community engagement through urban farming initiatives and enhance sustainable agriculture in Australian cities. Musa and Basir (2021) state that with the everyday advancements in AI, IoT, and blockchain, the smart urban farming project will help the inhabitants of the city to consume freshly produced food in their dwellings and community spaces with maximum efficiency and minimal effort. The SUFP aims to introduce a novel way for urban residents to engage in agriculture, disrupting traditional supply chains and farming methods. It targets tech-savvy urban residents incorporating circular economy principles using waste materials for soil enrichment. It promotes a closed-loop system where production is consumed locally, reducing waste and carbon footprint. The platform should be developed with user-centric features and should diversify the revenue stream.

Industry being disrupted

The idea of SUFP is disruptive as it is disrupting the traditional agricultural industry in Australia by integrating the latest technologies into the urban food production scenario. Where conventional agriculture is dependent upon large-scale use of substantial land labour and water to perform large-scale operations, smart urban farming will leverage technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, artificial intelligence (AI), and vertical farming systems to grow food within urban environments. Here automation can be implemented by using gadgets that respond automatically to different conditions without any human need as wireless sensor networks will be able to operate automative devices. This can help with sheer scale to maximise crop yields. Sensors can be used in the soil of irrigated areas to measure the moisture content, signalling when the moisture is high or low and use sprinkler systems accordingly in real-time minimising water and pesticide consumption which are concerns for traditional farming. Other detection may be the light and temperature similarly data analytics can be used and provide insight into the effectiveness of any operations and influence the decision-making process and possible forecasting (Chataut et al., 2023).