On March 7, Koumura, Tanigaki, and Furuyama from the Department of Community Resource Development held a workshop for tomato farmers in Koya, Shobara City, at the JA Hiroshima Koya Branch to assemble agricultural sensors using the Raspberry Pi, a small PC. In this workshop, participants learned about the use of IoT technology in the agricultural field and had hands-on experience assembling sensors.
First, Mr. Furuyama gave a lecture, explaining the current status of environmental control devices for greenhouses and other facilities and how to install them inexpensively. He also introduced the effects of actually installing this technology, which could significantly increase yields, and this attracted the participants’ attention.
Tanigaki’s lecture was followed by a challenge for participants to assemble an agricultural sensor using Raspberry Pi. After assembling the sensors on their own, they visualized the acquired data using an application developed by Tanigaki and learned how to utilize the data. Participants commented that “building the sensor myself helped me understand how it works” and “I would like to consider using it,” making this a practical learning opportunity.
This workshop provided a valuable opportunity to learn how the latest technology can be applied in the agricultural field. We plan to introduce the actual equipment during the tomato planting season.