Sustainable smart agricultural approach in terrace farming through sensor fusion technology

Terrace farming offers a sustainable solution for urban agriculture by efficiently utilizing limited space for crop cultivation in urban areas. However, traditional terrace farming relies on manual irrigation, which leads to inconsistent water use and unstable microclimatic conditions that reduce productivity in the long term. This study proposes an automatic drip-irrigation control system based on a Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) for a fully controlled terrace farming environment. The system integrates multi-sensors like temperature-humidity, and soil moisture, water flow, in order to ensure precise water delivery. Temperature and humidity control in this study involved the use of polycarbonate roofing, strategically placed as a protective layer, to regulate water flow. A total of 20 fuzzy IF-THEN rules with triangular membership functions were developed, and Defuzzification was performed using the centroid method. Experiments conducted over a 12-week cultivation period using Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) showed a 50% increase in yield (8.8 kg m⁻² vs. 5.85 kg m⁻²) and a 7.7% reduction in water use (323 l m⁻² vs. 350 l m⁻²) compared to traditional irrigation. The significance of this study lies in demonstrating how fuzzy logic and sensor fusion can create intelligent and resource-efficient terrace farming systems that reduce human effort, improve productivity, and support sustainable urban agriculture under varying climatic conditions.