Avnet Showcases End-to-End Smart Horticulture Solutions at Horti Asia 2018

 Avnet Asia Pacific showcased its end-to-end smart horticulture solutions this week at Horti Asia 2018.  

“Advancements in technology have dynamically changed the landscape for horticulture to what it is today — data-driven, providing precision controls for monitoring conditions, and systems are smarter than ever,” commented Andy Wong, senior vice president of global design solutions at Avnet Asia. “Avnet designs, integrates, and validates innovative solutions that are practical for the horticultural landscape of the next generation. We help businesses keep up with the rapidly changing horticulture landscape by bringing the latest innovations to the industry to accelerate horticulture production.”

Agriculture is a way of life in Asia, with 8 out of 10 countries in ASEAN dependent on agriculture and its production. Countries such as Myanmar and Laos obtain more than 40 percent of their GDP accounted for through agriculture. The Internet of Things (IoT) allows farmers, ranchers, and beekeepers to stay connected to their fields and livestock like never before. With the rapid advancement in technology solutions, the agricultural market growth in the region will continue to surge exponentially over the years.

For horticulture businesses and users, Avnet empowers them with long-range remote-monitoring and control capabilities through LPWAN technologies, as well as sensors for lighting, gas, temperature, moisture and many more vital parameters essential for a good harvest. Avnet also supports solutions for innovative lighting technologies within the plant-lighting spectrum, on top of energy-efficient smart pump control solutions. Avnet’s capabilities and connected ecosystem provide a holistic approach to smart horticulture solutions for the next generation.

At Horti Asia 2018, visitors were introduced to Avnet’s smart pump control and monitoring and pump-control through IoT adoption and smartphone integration, helping to save time, money, energy consumption while increasing pump life. Avnet also showcased the low-cost water- and weather-proof soil sensor (gSense-100), a rugged, battery-operated, low-power and long-ranging sensor that uses the IoT network. By enabling the measurement of various soil parameters through frequency domain techniques, gSense-100 gives end-users a clear idea of soil water depletion, which helps in tracking the effectiveness of water sources.

Other highlights with Avnet partners at the show included: customizable, high-efficiency LED lighting for horticulture with Osram Opto Semiconductors; real-time monitoring of air quality by measuring carbon dioxide levels and connecting to cloud utilizing narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) from Quectel; as well as water level and environmental monitoring measurements empowered by LoRa and STMicroelectronics.