Two Kenyan students built an award winning greenhouse that can control temperature, humidity and soil moisture from their mobile phones. Imagine that, texting your greenhouse telling it to water your tomatoes without even lifting a finger! These two didn’t strike gold right away though, after leaving university they tried growing tomatoes at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro with a couple of other students. They were hit with heavy floods meaning their crops were done for.
However this was a blessing in disguise, after their crops were destroyed it gave them the idea to start their own greenhouse business. Their greenhouse went on to win awards and gave them recognition for something so smart that they even got the attention of President Barack Obama! This greenhouse was built from local materials, meaning they kept costs way down and fitted it with monitoring sensors for temperature, humidity and soil moisture. The greenhouse then sends them a text when something needs to be changed inside; like if it gets too hot for example. They can then text back changing things, like the temperature to help their crops grow perfectly.
The whole thing is also run off solar power and allows them to minimise waste dramatically, since everything is monitored closely. The students have stated that these greenhouses will be available to the rest of Africa sometime soon this year. This will help farmers giving them a lot more control over their crops.
At the end of the day the only question left is: when can we start buying these in the UK as well?
Allenby Glass Ltd. 