Dr. Sadigh Damghanizadeh: 100 small-scale smart greenhouses will be set up in Iran

"This smart greenhouse is a starting point for establishing a national network of small-scale greenhouses. Reducing water consumption and increasing productivity are among its advantages," said Dr. Mohammad Gafar Sadigh Damghanizadeh, the Advisor to the Minister and the President of Information and Communication Technology Park, at the opening ceremony of the IoT Application Lab. 

“This Lab aims to provide food security and reduce water consumption. In other words, on the one hand, setting up large-scale greenhouses demands great financial investments, and on the other hand, establishing small greenhouses is not economically viable; hence, for solving this problem, we need to embrace Internet Network," he explained. 

Dr. Sadigh Damghanizadeh mentioned that using national information network services effectively reduces costs, resulting in a more economical project.

"With this goal in mind, we will set up a network of around 100 small greenhouses in 10 provinces, prioritizing the border towns. After establishing these networks, their production and economic status will also be assessed," he added.

"We hope that these greenhouse networks will start their operation at a national scale during the Government Celebration Week and on Fajr Decade, the annual celebration of Iran's Islamic Revolution in the next year," he continued.

In another part of his remarks, the Advisor to the Minister and the President of ICT Park pointed out that following the success of this project, Iran will become the hub for cucurbits cultivation in the region. He also remarked that even right now, there are great potentials for developing this type of production in Iran.

"In other words, we could set up such greenhouses on rocky lands or domestic environments without concerning about or dealing with issues such as water consumption or unsuitable soil," he further clarified. 

Dr. Sadigh Damghanizadeh also remarked that the main challenge for this project is harvesting the products and selling them.

"To achieve this aim, we will solve the problem, using our national information network; however, in the first place, we need to reach the desired culmination, since according to our current plans, this network of small-scale greenhouses is going to lead our nation to such level of productivity that no job-seeking individual may remain jobless. On the other hand, this plan will resolve the issues regarding migration from small towns to big cities," he concluded.

"One of the important technologies that can be helpful in managing water consumption is IoT technology, which stands for Internet of Things," mentioned Dr. Sattar Hashemi, the Deputy Minister of Technology and Innovation of Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, at the opening ceremony of this greenhouse, referring to Iran's limitations with regard to water resources.

"To this end, we need to enhance our prospects in this technology and the associated fields with more demands, including agriculture," clarified the Deputy Minister of Technology and Innovation of Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, referring to the upcoming increase in using this technology by 2030 in national and global scales. 

“According to recent reports, more than 70% of Iran's water resources are used in agriculture; hence, given the climatic conditions of Iran and the limitations that we have in this regard, we need to embrace using technologies such as IoT. in order to increase productivity and reduce water consumption," he added.

"IOT technology has a smart network for data collection and is capable of coexisting with other technologies, including the 5g mobile phones and artificial intelligence. Above all, this technology provides proper instructions to the farmers for cultivating more products while using fewer resources," continued Dr. Hashemi.

"In fact, when we talk about productivity, it means that by using fewer resources, we can experience more efficiency. One of these crucial and scarce resources is water, besides which the required care for plant growth demands great attention," he emphasized. For this aim, in order to increase productivity in this sector, the great potentials of technologies, including IoT and artificial intelligence, are extremely applicable.

In another part of his statements, the Deputy Minister of Technology and Innovation of Ministry of Information and Communications Technology referred to the issue of employment with regard to technological advancements.

"There is traditional concern about the issue of employment worrying whether the technology would result in unemployment. Ironically, the employment rate in association with technologies such as artificial intelligence has been reported to be positive," he remarked.

He also mentioned that small-scale greenhouses could produce valuable data.

"According to an ICT report, 20 to 40 percent of the agricultural products are not usable due to lack of proper management and misapplication of pesticides; therefore, by proper data collection and analyzing small-scale greenhouses, we can manage pathological studies and proper planning," he explained.

"Regardless of whether our greenhouses are in small-scales or not, in order to perform such a proper assessment and analysis of agriculture, the data generated from these greenhouses are required to be transferred to a communication platform for later aggregation and analysis. Therefore, the developing prospect we are experiencing in ICT Park is of high value since we can analyze the received data and present it to the farmers in the form of comprehensible and applicable instructions which would result in a magnificent transformation in agriculture," added Hashemi.

"Maintaining the value of technology is effective only when we can provide our nation with the sweet outcome of technology, using the great innovative potentials, and let them see that we are using the multiple aspects of technology in an augmented synergistic coexistence," he emphasized in the end.

It should be noted that ICT Park smart greenhouse provides a space of about 100 square meters and is based on IOT technology or the Internet of Things. This greenhouse has the potential to grow any product and can provide environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, irrigation, etc.) or adapt to these conditions by smart and automatic application of new technologies. This greenhouse requires all parameters to be monitored and controlled via the web and the Internet. It can also maintain a network of greenhouses via the web. It is even possible to reduce water consumption and increase efficiency by observing the parameters thoroughly.