Smart sensing devices enabled hydroponics, a concept of vertical farming that involves soilless technology that increases green area. Although the cultivation medium is water, hydroponic cultivation uses 13 ± 10 times less water and gives 10 ± 5 times better quality products compared with those obtained through the substrate cultivation medium. The use of smart sensing devices helps in continuous real-time monitoring of the nutrient requirements and the environmental conditions required by the crop selected for cultivation. This, in turn, helps in enhanced year-round agricultural production. In this study, lettuce, a leafy crop, is cultivated with the Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) setup of hydroponics, and the growth results are compared with cultivation in a substrate medium. The leaf growth was analyzed in terms of cultivation cycle, leaf length, leaf perimeter, and leaf count in both cultivation methods, where hydroponics outperformed substrate cultivation. The results of the ‘AquaCrop simulator also showed similar results, not only qualitatively and quantitatively, but also in terms of sustainable growth and year-round production. The energy consumption of both the cultivation methods is compared, and it is found that hydroponics consumes 70 ± 11 times more energy compared to substrate cultivation. Finally, it is concluded that smart sensing devices form the backbone of precision agriculture, thereby multiplying crop yield by real-time monitoring of the agronomical variables.

The rising global population and shrinking arable land present critical challenges for sustaining food security, especially under the pressures of climate change. Soilless farming has emerged as a transformative agricultural method, leveraging controlled and protected environments to address these challenges. Soilless cultivation methods, such as hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics, leverage smart technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to optimize farming practices. These innovations enable higher productivity, greater resource efficiency, and consistent year-round yields compared to traditional soil-based agriculture. This article provides a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 7,764 Scopus-indexed research articles on soil and soilless cultivation published between 2013 and 2023. Key findings reveal that Acta Horticulturae is the most prolific source, while Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety leads in citations (5,575), and Public Library of Science One (PLoS ONE) holds the highest h-index (404). This paper examines current trends, identifies research gaps, and maps collaboration networks, providing valuable insights for researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders. By outlining the advantages of vertical farming and Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA)-enabled soilless techniques, this work supports informed decision-making to address food security challenges and drive sustainable agricultural innovations.

Vertical farming methods are gaining importance in the current era of urbanization and industrialization 5.0. These methods of farming enhance sustainability by consuming less space and reducing carbon emissions and greenhouse gas emissions. The Green Internet of Things (G-IoT) offers greater environmental sustainability by switching to a dormant mode while not in use, thereby consuming less energy. Each farming method has a different effect on the shoot and root growth of the plants. Thus, dedicated farming methods must be identified for each crop according to the type of crop under consideration. This leads to a need to compare and analyze the root as well as shoot growth trends of crops in different cultivation mediums, using different cultivation methods, thereby identifying the most suitable method for the cultivation of the crop. A comparative analysis of barley shoot and root growth in green IoT-embedded hydroponics and substrate cultivation methods has shown that hydroponics exhibits two times more shoot growth than substrate cultivation. Furthermore, the results were verified against the results obtained from the simulator, which confirmed that the hydroponic method of cultivation produced a year-round qualitative product with 17.112 tons of biomass and 8.556 tons of dry yield.

Pomology, also known as fruticulture, is a significant contributor to the economies of many nations worldwide. While vertical farming methods are not well-suited for fruit cultivation, substrate-based cultivation is commonly practiced. Vertical farming methods use no soil for cultivation of the plants, and the cultivation is done in vertically stacked layers. Therefore, smaller herbs are best suited for such cultivation, whereas, the majority of the fruit trees are big and woody. Therefore, vertical farming methods are not well suited for fruit trees. However, to maximize fruit production, smarter substrate cultivation methods are needed. Utilizing remote sensing techniques, such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices, agriculture sensors, and cloud computing, allows for precision agriculture and smart farming in autonomous systems. Nevertheless, a lack of understanding of fruit nutrient requirements, growing conditions, and soil health conditions can result in reduced fruit production. To address these challenges, this paper proposes an intelligent model based on machine learning that recommends the best fruit to grow based on prevailing soil and climatic conditions. The system is trained on a dataset that includes details on eleven different fruits, such as Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P), Potassium (K), temperature, humidity, pH, and rainfall. The model takes into account the soil type and nutrient contents to recommend the most suitable fruit to grow in the prevailing climate. To enhance the model's efficiency, two novel techniques, Gradient-based Side Sampling (GOSS) and Exclusive Feature Bundling (EFB), have been incorporated. The results show that the proposed system has achieved 99% accuracy in recommending the right fruit based on the given environmental conditions. As a result, this system has the potential to significantly improve the profitability of the pomology industry and boost national economies.

In the currently prevailing era of Industry 4.0 and servitisation in diverse fields, the major and the most vital regards has turned out to be conservation of energy and consequently eliminating the possibility of resource deficiency in Internet of Things (IoT). In a Green Internet of Things (G-IoT) network, IoT transmits data to and from a fusion node over multi hops. The sustainable operation is obtained by retrieving energy from ambient sources as well as from power grid. The foremost aim in achieving a sustainable ecosystem is to reduce the carbon emission in the environment. The concept of green manufacturing is thriving to its fullest and that too with the consent of the leading global enterprises. An exponential increase in the count of publications is seen on annual basis pertaining to the wide research scope in this field. A detailed study of the IoTs, Green IoTs, their architecture, characteristics and a few bibliometric analyses of the areas relating to green manufacturing is presented in this study to help in a better facilitation of any follow up research work. The database used for this bibliometric analysis is taken from Scopus and involves a total of 268 documents related to G-IoTs that too when no other limiting criteria is applied apart from “Articles” in “English” Language. It is found from the analysis that the most cited article is contributed by ZHU C in IEEE ACCESS in the year 2015, with a total citation of 290. Analysis in various aspects including most cited documents, country collaboration map, analysis of a thematic map and time slicing is performed, depicted and elaborated in this study. Finally, the inferences of this study form a basis of structuring and recommending the future directions possible to be explored.

Medicinal plants play a vital role in treating human and livestock ailments. A majority of the population living across the world relies on medicinal plants as a primary source of healthcare. The rural as well as the urban habitats depend on medicinal plants. Medicinal plants may be of root type or shoot type. Onion is one of the root types of medicinal plants that has abundant health benefits as well as economic value. Due to increasing urbanization, the availability of agricultural land is decreasing rapidly which is causing an increase in the demand for medicinal plants in a reduced cultivation area. This has led to the cultivation of soilless smart precision farming methods. Sensors are used to monitor and control the environmental factors affecting the growth and yield of agricultural produce. Among all the vertical farming methods, hydroponics is found to be the best way for cultivating herbaceous plants. This article deals with the comparison of growth responses of hydroponically grown onion (Allium cepa) in a Deep-Water Culture (DWC) setup, as compared to that cultivated in soil. A systematic literature survey of onion grown in a hydroponic cultivation system is carried out. Finally, the growth responses of hydroponic and soil-grown onions are checked and compared with the results obtained from the ‘AquaCrop’ simulator. Results of the actual and simulator are verified and validated, and it is found that the actual and the simulation results are similar.