• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.166-172
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• 2018

This study set out to conduct a field survey with smart greenhouse-based farms in seven types to figure out the actual state of smart greenhouses distributed across the nation before selecting a system to implement an optimal greenhouse environment and doing a research on higher productivity based on data related to crop growth, development, and environment. The findings show that the farms were close to an intelligent or advanced smart farm, given the main purposes of leading cases across the smart farm types found in the field. As for the age of farmers, those who were in their forties and sixties accounted for the biggest percentage, but those who were in their fifties or younger ran 21 farms that accounted for approximately 70.0%. The biggest number of farmers had a cultivation career of ten years or less. As for the greenhouse type, the 1-2W type accounted for 50.0%, and the multispan type accounted for 80.0% at 24 farms. As for crops they cultivated, only three farms cultivated flowers with the remaining farms growing only fruit vegetables, of which the tomato and paprika accounted for approximately 63.6%. As for control systems, approximately 77.4% (24 farms) used a domestic control system. As for the control method of a control system, three farms regulated temperature and humidity only with a control panel with the remaining farms adopting a digital control method to combine a panel with a computer. There were total nine environmental factors to measure and control including temperature. While all the surveyed farms measured temperature, the number of farms installing a ventilation or air flow fan or measuring the concentration of carbon dioxide was relatively small. As for a heating system, 46.7% of the farms used an electric boiler. In addition, hot water boilers, heat pumps, and lamp oil boilers were used. As for investment into a control system, there was a difference in the investment scale among the farms from 10 million won to 100 million won. As for difficulties with greenhouse management, the farmers complained about difficulties with using a smart phone and digital control system due to their old age and the utter absence of education and materials about smart greenhouse management. Those difficulties were followed by high fees paid to a consultant and system malfunction in the order.