Queensland farmers will be relying on a different type of cloud to cultivate their crops with the state government funding research that allows plant monitoring systems to text growers when conditions are not right.
Farmers often need to develop solutions specific for the Queensland climate and a $300,000 grant has been given to Dr Stephen Xu to work on a cloud-based system that checks soil moisture, air temperature and plants' water consumption.
"There are some smart systems available for broad acreage farms but they are often expensive so it's hard for farmers to deploy many of them," Science and Innovation Minister Leeanne Enoch said.
"Dr Xu is trying to come up with a solution that is not only cheaper but can also integrate a wide range of data from different information platforms."
Horticulture is the second-largest primary industry in the state and Dr Xu aims to have a system working within 18 months.
"I believe an integration of conventional knowledge and cutting-edge information technologies - like sensors, mobile network, the Internet of Things, cloud information platforms and big data processing - will be the future of agriculture," Dr Xu said.
He will work on facilities in the Bundaberg region to develop a prototype.
Once the project has been completed, Dr Xu said he would consider building a generic system that could be adapted to other crops in different regions.
Testing has already begun at a Department of Agriculture and Fisheries greenhouse in the Burdekin, where recycled mobile phones have been used for crop monitoring.
"Deployment of state-of-art information technologies will stimulate the agriculture sector to enter an 'information intensive' era in the next a few decades," Dr Xu said.
