Taiwan Institute of Technology uses LED light source to illuminate high-value agricultural “money” scenes on a variety of crops

The use of technology to assist high-yield crops is a new trend in agriculture, especially the application of LED light sources in plant growth, and it is a major breakthrough in recent years. Under the support of the Industrial upgrading and transformation service group of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Taiwan Industrial Research Institute, with the support of the cross-border LED application, has received good results.

Let the farmers change the long-term use of cheaper incandescent lamps as the habit of night lighting equipment, switch to LED lights with better energy-saving effects, can solve the production and quality problems caused by insufficient lighting, and can also achieve energy saving. Benefits, increase farmers' income.

In recent years, with the increase in electricity tariffs in Taiwan, the farmers’ profits, which are highly dependent on night lighting, have been greatly diluted, and farmers have begun to think about changing the options of lighting to reduce the possibility of cost. The grape farmers in Xihu Town, Changhua County, under the guidance of the Greenhouse System Center of the Taiwan Institute of Technology, tried to introduce LED lamps as the light source at night.

Since the vineyards in Taiwan are planted in sheds, the vines are opened and scattered on the shed, and the result is that the LED lights must be illuminated from the bottom to the top to maximize economic benefits. The design and layout of the LED lights are constantly being revised. The R&D team of the Institute of Technology of the Taiwan Institute of Technology cooperated with farmers in 2011 and finally succeeded in developing modules that can replace incandescent lamps. It adopts a hanging LED lamp panel and is designed with a bevel wide-angle illumination to illuminate from bottom to top. Consider the farm automatic sprinkler system and design a waterproof lampshade to make the LED lamp waterproof and promote crop growth.

Compared with the traditional spiral lamp, the LED light source only needs less than 20% of the original electricity cost to achieve the same effect. This successful case allows the Taiwan Institute of Technology to plan to promote LED lights to other vineyards, helping farmers to save on electricity bills and increase profits.

Due to the geographical location and the climatic zone, the winter season in Taiwan is long and short, and during this period, the crops often suffer from poor sunshine due to insufficient sunshine. As a supplementary growth measure, the fruit farmers use the light-saving bulbs at night. Therefore, the annual electricity bill is as high as 30 million yuan (NTD, the same below).

Manager Hua Shihao of the Industrial Research Institute Branch pointed out that providing the most suitable LED light source for plant characteristics can help improve the grape fruiting rate and save more than 80% of energy consumption, which can save up to 24 million yuan in electricity expenses. .

More importantly, studies have shown that under the illumination of LED light source, the quality of grape fruit is relatively uniform, and the characteristics of anthocyanin and sweetness in the fruit are better than those of the original spiral bulb, such as anthocyanins. Can be 10% more. LED lamps have the advantages of uniform luminosity and no light damage, which can increase production, high efficiency, disease resistance and no light damage. This kind of irradiation method can not only save electricity but also create more than 10% additional benefits for fruit farmers.

With the price war of LED lighting in the past year, the lower the price of LED bulbs, the faster the cost of recycling LED lamps by grape farmers, and the ability to invest funds in newer lamps.

At present, the intelligent LED lighting control technology of the Taiwan Institute of Technology has been adopted in the agricultural fields such as the white bamboo shoots, asparagus, strawberries and grapes in Nantou, Hsinchu and Changhua in Taiwan, and has shown good planting results.

For example, the LED lamps of the Taiwan Industrial Research Institute have been successfully used in the test of the white bamboo shoots in Puli, Nantou, and the LED lights are introduced into the light control of the white bamboo shoots in Nantou Puli. The bulbs are used to illuminate the bulbs directly above the plants. Allow crops to be evenly exposed to light, making photosynthesis more efficient.

At the same time, Taiwan Institute of Technology develops “smart greenhouse”, uses intelligent LED lighting control technology to plant organic asparagus, and introduces IoT planting environment automatic monitoring system, which can automatically measure indoor illuminance, air and soil temperature, humidity and electrical conductivity every day. And other data, and through the relevant data analysis to control the light output of LED lamps, to create the best asparagus planting light environment.

In addition, the Taiwan Institute of Technology has also cooperated with Hsinchu Xiangshan Strawberry Farm to reduce the number of days required for planting to flowering by using LED illumination. It has been shortened by at least 10 to 15 days, the early harvest will increase the number of births, and the strawberry plants can be controlled. Growth pattern, yield, quality, and inhibition of the occurrence of pests and diseases, the added value of LED lighting technology, also make strawberry cultivation become one of the high-value agriculture.