[CEATEC 2016] When trying to grow fruits or vegetables, naturally the soil is important. Soils that have too much acidity or alkaline is obviously not ideal, and in order to check that, farmers need to constantly evaluate their soil which can be time-consuming as this typically involves the soil being taken to an evaluation center.
However the ROHM Group’s Lapis Semiconductor has recently shown off a soil sensor that actually has the ability to monitor soil environments in real-time along with factors such as acidity, temperature, and even water quality. What does this mean? Like we said, typical evaluation of soil needs to be taken to a center for analysis, but by monitoring the soil conditions in real-time, farmers will be able to know what exactly is going on and can react faster to any changes that they need to make.
Ultimately this should lead to an improvement in terms of agricultural productivity. In addition, Lapis believes that this semiconductor will also be able to prevent landslides. As the information is being monitored in real-time, any changes to the soil that could indicate a landslide can be sent to whoever is monitoring, which allows them to issue warnings to people living or driving around that area.
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