Baoshan Farm at Hsinchu
Small farmers can do it alone
Both lack of manpower and widespread use of pesticides have become a major problem in Taiwan's agriculture in recent years. Due to change of times, heavy work in traditional agriculture makes many people not to work in farms. The will to work in farms become much weaker with both changes of circumstances and climates as well as the occurrences of the diseases and pests of crops.
However, the Baoshan Farm at Hsinchu gives a new prospect of farming of possibilities in the future. There are many subsystems used on the Baoshan Farm at Hsinchu of 1983.48 m2 in addition to automatic irrigating and fertilizing by the automatic control subsystem. Information about wind speed, rain fall, luminance, temperature, humidity, CO2 content, atmospheric pressure, and ultraviolet can be collected by the micro weather station subsystem. Information about soil temperature, soil moisture, soil PH, and soil conductivity are collected by the environment detection subsystem. It can further detect the possible occurrence of pests of crops. Some diseases and pests of crops may occur with changing of the weather and/or the soil conditions. With the help of both the subsystems, warnings may be given by instant messaging app to remind farm managers of prevention and cure by spraying appropriate amount of insecticides in time if necessary.
With the help of the entire system, the Baoshan Farm at Hsinchu is maintain by only one farmer, Master Du. The farm is under monitor and control all the time, and it is not nessary for Master Du always to work at the farm. The Baoshan Farm at Hsinchu actually provides a good demonstration of beginning of smart farming.