Empowering Farmers with Community-Driven IoT Solutions: A Comprehensive Use-Case Study on Mayagreens' Innovative Approach to Agriculture

Specializing in IoT solutions, Mayagreens revolutionizes agriculture connectivity. Their farm controller automates manual tasks, linking devices across farms to create a real-time data network. This tech-enhanced network promotes smart decision-making and farmer collaboration. Mayagreens champions community farming initiatives, fostering mutual support for sustainable farming practices, boosted revenues, optimized costs, and minimized waste.

Mayagreens is focusing its resources on equipping farmers with the tools for success. The efforts are centered on several areas:

• The agricultural irrigation industry;
• An agricultural eMarket;
• Educational institution partnerships;
• Job opportunity creation.

Their farming automation solutions are designed to:

1. Automate irrigation, fertigation, and other farm control activities;
2. Provide farmers with data about plant health and the specific water requirements for different crops to maximize yield;
3. Equip farmers with comprehensive solutions about the farm, identifying problem areas, assessing irrigation performance, and offering recommendations from Mayagreens.

India

Mayagreens has been at the forefront of implementing multiple LoRa P2P solutions over the past three years, specifically in the agricultural irrigation sectors.

Their innovative solutions have been instrumental in controlling motors and valve operations, bringing a new level of precision and efficiency to these crucial agricultural processes. The company's commitment to expanding its offerings for community-based networks, various farming operations and field sensors is evident in their continued developments.

Currently, Mayagreens is in the process of building a solution based on LoRaWAN, with numerous deployments anticipated over the next 3 to 6 months. They have initiated their design using WisGate Edge Lite 2, with an impending upgrade to WisGate Edge Pro on the horizon. This upgrade is expected to bring about significant improvements in terms of cost-effectiveness, ease of use, reliability, and power efficiency, making it an ideal choice for scalable deployments.

In terms of product design, Mayagreens is utilizing STM32WL family SoCs, which will be integrated with RAK’s WisDuo modules and breakout boards to facilitate LoRaWAN connectivity. The compatibility of WisDuo with RUI3 and STM32CubeIDE, along with its modular design and user-friendly interface, makes it a valuable addition to the company's technological arsenal.

At the heart of Mayagreens' operations are three core pillars:

• providing services to farmers
• establishing the market
• promoting good governance initiatives

By offering a comprehensive range of services that span from machinery support to advisory services, they assist farmers in streamlining their entire farming lifecycle.

A standout feature of Mayagreens' ecosystem is the empowerment of farmers through market-based monetization opportunities, enabling them to sell their produce through various channels. This includes online sales support, food processing, and exports. Automation is set to play a pivotal role in scaling these initiatives, enhancing productivity and efficiency across the board.

One particular use case worth highlighting is the application of their sensor node in the agricultural irrigation sector. This technology has revolutionized the way motors and valve operations are controlled, bringing about remarkable improvements in irrigation methods.

Through this specific application, Mayagreens continues to demonstrate its commitment to enhancing connectivity across the agriculture sector, paving the way for a more technologically advanced and sustainable future in farming.

Mayagreens have used RAK modules in a limited area and are looking to expand their offerings in the LoRaWAN domain. This community-based agricultural network requires many routers to be deployed in various locations, including sensor nodes and gateways, to collect and upload data to the cloud. The modularity and scalability of RAK’s products greatly facilitate this process.

For phase 1, the deployment is covering the agricultural communities in Tamilnadu and Karnataka. Phase 2 will expand to Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. If everything goes according to plan, phase 3 will expand to other states.

This community-based farming initiative is the first of its kind in India, launched with the assistance of government bodies and farmers.

In addition to this, Mayagreens is embracing Digital India's vision by introducing students to the IoT world to meet market demand. As such, several colleges have partnered with Mayagreens to design IoT curriculums, set up labs, establish real-world sensor setups, gateway setups, and offer consultations.

The next stages of the project involve:

• Implementing precise crop-based fertilization;
• Using robots and drones for weed removal, pesticide spraying, and disease and pest control;
• Building a community and enabling a comprehensive network for farmers through Mayagreens’ IoT-based products;
• Creating an AI/ML-based solution for better demand forecasting;
• Providing direct market access to farmers through an e-market portal.