This study developed and evaluated a cloud-based smart irrigation platform (DSmart Farming) integrating low-cost sensors and IoT technology for automated irrigation control in community greenhouses of Puen Jai Insee, organic group in Sa Kaeo Province. The system combined soil moisture, air temperature, and relative humidity sensors, with a LoRa32-based control unit in each greenhouse and a central web-based management application linked to a MariaDB database on a cloud server. Five vegetable crops, including cherry tomato, broccoli, cabbage, Chinese kale, and kale, were grown over two distinct seasons under four irrigation strategies in a completely randomized design with three replications: three smart irrigation treatments based on soil moisture thresholds (on/off at 40/50%, 45/55%, and 50/60%) and a farmer-managed conventional irrigation control. The smart irrigation system maintained root-zone moisture within the target range (approximately 50–60%) and moderated greenhouse microclimate, preventing daytime temperatures from exceeding 40 °C, in contrast to 40–45 °C peaks in the conventional greenhouses. Across crops, smart irrigation increased yields by 20–29% while reducing water use by 41–60% compared to conventional practice, leading to income increases of 20–56%, depending on the crop. Bacterial soft rot caused by Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum occurred only under conventional irrigation, whereas no soft rot or other major diseases were detected in smart-irrigated greenhouses. These results demonstrate that the DSmart Farming system can enhance water use efficiency, avoid disease incidence, and improve the productivity and profitability of organic greenhouse vegetable production in water-limited smallholder systems.
Thepbandit et al. (2026) studied this question.