Abstract:
Mushroom farming is one of the high-value innovative types of agriculture due to its nutrition and the big role it plays in food security and reducing malnutrition. Growing mushrooms is very economical and innovative. It grows by recycling agricultural waste products like wheat straw and cotton husk with limited resources like space area and water consumption. Oyster mushroom is the common type that grows in Rwanda due to its easy cultivation process and resistance to different weather conditions. Still, Rwandan mushroom farmers continue to experience unsatisfactory yields due to the traditional and manual type of farming they are using. This thesis aims to address the key environmental challenges that have a big role in growing mushrooms by using an IoT-based automated mushroom cultivation system. We will use sensors like DHT11 to monitor the temperature and humidity of the mushroom growing rooms and moisture sensors to control the soil moisture of the mushroom boxes. We will also use Oxygen and CO2 sensors to monitor the airflow in the growing room as proper ventilation has big effect on mushroom cultivation. The sensor data will be processed using ESP8266 microcontroller and send the data to the Blynk and Thingspeak cloud. The system will take an automatic action to irrigate, humidify, and ventilate when the sensor data is out of range or threshold level. Farmers will also be able to monitor their farms remotely using the Blynk app regardless of their location.
