In Costa Rica, agriculture plays an important role in the economy. Various agricultural products such as bananas, pineapples, coffee, and sugar are exported from the country.

Allison, Sharon, and Bryan, high school students from San José Province of Costa Rica, come from farming families. Agriculture is a big part of their lives as well as a close matter to their hearts, which drove them to dive into and learn more about farming challenges among their community. They carried out interviews and discovered that farmers need to bring technology into the fields to enable more sustainable and cost-effective production.

Communicating with the farmers

During the interview, farmers stated: “We don’t have access to technology at all.” Living in the area, the three students would often encounter small-scale farmers harvesting in a rather old-fashioned style. Although skillful at growing crops, these farmers did not have the technology to facilitate their process and enhance production.

Realizing such needs, the three friends began to look for a way to bring technology to the forefront. They incorporated their knowledge in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to develop a farming solution fit for all harvesters. Testing various options, the team created AutoGreen, an intelligent, self-sustaining agriculture 4.0 irrigation system.

Usable to all farmers

“AutoGreen is an irrigation system designed for all small and medium-sized farmers, regardless of their crop types. It is managed from the comfort of the mobile device,” said Allison. Sharon added, “The system consists of three modules: a control center, a mobile app, and an AG-Cloud storage system.”

Bryan, who took charge of software development and computer networking, made sure that AutoGreen could obtain readings from plantations by setting up an IoT control center that encrypts the system’s communication between the mobile app and AG-Cloud. Through this, information like soil moisture, ambient temperature, and humidity could be monitored directly from the farms.

“Information is sent directly from devices to our servers,” explained Bryan. “All data is stored historically and provides the farmer with important information for decision-making, such as the optimal amount of irrigation to maximize production.”

Catering to the variety of needs

The students hope that their solution is useful to the farming community, incorporating different module options: manual, scheduled, and automatic watering by sensors, making AutoGreen adaptable to any farming environment and irrigation system.

Recognized not only for their knowledge and application of STEM but also for the positive impact on the community, the AutoGreen team ranked first place in the regional Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition. “With AutoGreen, we ensure you obtain a better quality of your crops, maximize production, have greater profitability, and at the same time take care of the environment!”