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Increasing Profitability and Monitoring Environmental Performance: A Case Study in the Agri-Food Industry through an Edge-IoT Platform

Author

Listed:
  • María E. Pérez-Pons

    (BISITE Research Group, University of Salamanca, Edificio Multiusos I+D+i, Calle Espejo, 2, 37007 Salamanca, Spain)

  • Marta Plaza-Hernández

    (BISITE Research Group, University of Salamanca, Edificio Multiusos I+D+i, Calle Espejo, 2, 37007 Salamanca, Spain)

  • Ricardo S. Alonso

    (BISITE Research Group, University of Salamanca, Edificio Multiusos I+D+i, Calle Espejo, 2, 37007 Salamanca, Spain
    AIR Institute, IoT Digital Innovation Hub, Edificio Parque Científico, Módulo 305, Paseo de Belén, 11, Campus Miguel Delibes, 47011 Valladolid, Spain)

  • Javier Parra-Domínguez

    (BISITE Research Group, University of Salamanca, Edificio Multiusos I+D+i, Calle Espejo, 2, 37007 Salamanca, Spain
    AIR Institute, IoT Digital Innovation Hub, Edificio Parque Científico, Módulo 305, Paseo de Belén, 11, Campus Miguel Delibes, 47011 Valladolid, Spain)

  • Javier Prieto

    (BISITE Research Group, University of Salamanca, Edificio Multiusos I+D+i, Calle Espejo, 2, 37007 Salamanca, Spain
    AIR Institute, IoT Digital Innovation Hub, Edificio Parque Científico, Módulo 305, Paseo de Belén, 11, Campus Miguel Delibes, 47011 Valladolid, Spain)

Abstract

Globalization has led to a new paradigm where the traditional industries, such as agriculture, employ vanguard technologies to broaden its possibilities into what is known as smart farming and the agri-food industry 4.0. This industry needs to adapt to the current market through an efficient use of resources while being environmentally friendly. The most commonly used approaches for analyzing efficiency and sustainability on farms are production efficiency based analyses, such as Data Envelopment Analysis and Stochastic Frontier Analysis, since they allow to see how efficient the outputs are generated regardless of the units of measurement of the inputs. This work presents a real scenario for making farms more profitable and sustainable through the analysis of the Data Envelopment Analysis and the application of the Internet of Things and Edge Computing. What makes this model interesting is that it allows monitoring the ambient conditions with real-time data from the different sensors that have been installed on the farm, minimizing costs and gaining robustness in the transmission of the data to the cloud with Edge Computing, and then to have a complete overview in terms of monthly resource efficiency through the Data Envelopment Analysis. The results show that including the costs of edge and non-edge data transfer have an impact on the efficiency. This small-scale study set the basis for a future test with many farms simultaneously.

Suggested Citation

  • María E. Pérez-Pons & Marta Plaza-Hernández & Ricardo S. Alonso & Javier Parra-Domínguez & Javier Prieto, 2020. "Increasing Profitability and Monitoring Environmental Performance: A Case Study in the Agri-Food Industry through an Edge-IoT Platform," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2020:i:1:p:283-:d:470685
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    References listed on IDEAS

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