Clemence Uwamutarambirwa developed a mobile phone application that uses sensors to monitor soil quality and temperature and can automate irrigation after completing a six-month training in “Internet of Things” (IoT) at the Catholic University of Rwanda (CUR) in the country’s Huye and Gisagara Districts.

The Smart Potato Greenhouse Technology (SPGT) is the name that the 24 years old Uwamutarambirwa gives to her app. It is now being used to monitor the temperature and humidity levels of potatoes in greenhouses in Musanze District, a southern province of Rwanda. Later in the year, it is anticipated that it will be expanded to additional districts.

The creation is regarded as a crucial agricultural alleviator of famine. The success of it will draw farmers from other regions of the nation. In Rwanda, about 69% of households are involved in agriculture, such as agricultural farming or animal husbandry.

There are two components to the SPGT App. A moisture sensor to check the soil’s quality, a humidity sensor to check the humidity of potatoes, and a smart irrigation sensor to pump water to the greenhouse are only a few examples of interconnected sensors covered in the first section. Transmission of data is the topic of the second section. It notifies greenhouse managers via their mobile phones of notifications, alarms, and other remote monitoring data.

“The sensors capture pertinent data and send notifications and alerts to greenhouse managers through a cloud platform,” Uwamutarambirwa declared.

The App also enhances security measures by using automated cameras, sound, and motion detectors, and sensors to detect efforts to steal equipment from a greenhouse. These sensors snap images and send them to the administrators of greenhouses’ mobile phones when they identify theft attempts automatically.

Uwamutarambirwa claims that she created the App to help farmers combat food hunger and promote agricultural sustainability, and she adds that smart automatic irrigation boosts climate resistance.

She is currently employed by Seed Potato Fund (SPF-Ikigega), a professional seed trader serving regional communities, to ensure that farmers have access to high-quality potato seeds through the use of seed multipliers, seed storage, handling, and marketing techniques.

The young innovator believes that IoTs will greatly improve agriculture, particularly in the area of food safety. Its rapid expansion and popularity make it an important source of agricultural data. She believes that in the future, IoT technologies will be able to help with precision agriculture, food production, processing, storage, distribution, consumption, traceability, visibility, and controllability issues.

The Internet of Things could also aid with hydroculture, which is the practice of growing plants, typically agricultural or medicinal plants, without soil by employing water-based mineral fertilizer solutions in aqueous solvents, and horticulture, which is the cultivation of garden crops.