Smart Integrated Sustainable Agricultural and Remote Farms (SISARF) with 5G Network for Navajo Nation Communities

The current societal grand challenge is to ensure food, energy, and water security to meet the needs of the projected population growth in the US, which is estimated to grow from 330 million to 400 million, and the world population from 7.8 billion to 9.7 billion by 2050, requiring a 70% increase in global food production. Sustainable agriculture is critical to Navajo Nation Farm Communities to meet their needs for food.

Agricultural decision support systems are becoming increasingly popular for translating agronomic and climate sciences to crops, livestock, and dairy farmers. The Smart Integrated Farm 5G Network for Navajo Nation Farmers, Ranchers and Communities enhances timely data sharing and knowledge exchange for coordinated responses to food production threats including weeds, disease, insect, pest, and weather ensuring profitability and security for decades to come.

The research develops a flexible, scalable, and efficient cloud-based architecture and communication infrastructure for Smart and Connected Farms (SCFs) for the Navajo Nation Community of farmers, ranchers and youth. The Space-Air-Ground Integrated Network for in-field agricultural data collection utilizes Remote Sensing Satellite Systems, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, and Wireless Sensor Network.

As participants in agricultural production, Navajo Nation farmers equipped with smart devices have a better chance to obtain in-field agricultural data. The research products provide privacy-preserving data analytics across farms for community-level decision-making; establish community of practice to facilitate learning and feedback among farmers and scientists, trusted data and technology acceptance; and demonstrate economic benefit to SCFs.

The project outcomes aid the operations, enhance profitability of socially disadvantaged Navajo farmers and ranchers and veteran farmers and increase their knowledge to better utilize United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs and services.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.