IoT – based Smart Vertical Farming System to Enhance Agricultural Sustainability

In urban and space-constrained settings, vertical farming has become a viable strategy for sustainable food production. Nevertheless, a lot of small-scale agricultural systems still rely on fixed irrigation techniques and human monitoring, which can result in inefficient water use and uneven crop growth conditions. The design and execution of a low-cost Internet of Things (IoT) smart vertical farming system utilizing an ESP32 microcontroller for automated irrigation control and real-time environmental monitoring are presented in this work. The proposed system uses several sensors such as soil moisture, temperature, humidity, water level, pH, turbidity and water flow sensors to continuously monitor the environment of cultivation. The device automatically controls the irrigation using a relay driven water pump based on pre-defined moisture threshold levels. Sensor data are transmitted to the Adafruit IO cloud platform for remote monitoring and data logging and to an LCD module for local display. We conducted experimental testing in a soil-based growth system to evaluate irrigation responsiveness, cloud connectivity, and sensing accuracy.