Smart Dairies — Enablement of Smart City at Gross Root Level

Abstract

Rural and urban areas are linked. A basic definition of rural-urban linkages is that they consist of flows (of goods, people, information, finance, waste, information, social relations) across space, linking rural and urban areas (Cecilia, 2015). Economically, rural and urban areas are linked by reciprocal exchange of unprocessed and processed products, with both areas acting as mutually reinforcing markets [1]. Perhaps a less descriptive definition is of functional links between sectors (agriculture, industry, and services). The latter is central to structural change taking place both rural and urban areas. Additionally, rural and urban economies exhibit symbiotic relationship. Cecilia [2] notes in many regions of world we are witnessing an increase production, especially of perishable and high-value products such as fruit, vegetables and dairy, responding to urban demand. This is especially case rural areas that are well connected to urban markets by transport links, communications and electricity, and by networks of local traders (Cecilia, 2015). This is especially true with Dairy Industry. The dairy industry exhibits mini ecosystem of rural and urban linkage. The dairy industry plays an important role for both rural and urban dwellers: a) a major source of rural employment (12% to 14% of world population [6]), b) consistent non-seasonal source of income with immediate cash returns, c) major urban consumer staple and d) major contributor of agriculture GDP developing countries. In many developing countries, dairy industry employees majority of workforce from rural and have direct influence on rural and urban commerce. As per Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations [3], more than 6 billion people worldwide consume milk and milk products, majority of these people live developing countries [2]. It's clear from above, urban and rural areas have symbiotic relationship and order to make urban areas smart, aka Smart Cities, it is imperative that linkage of urban, this case rural areas, needs be Smart entities, aka. Smart Villages. For making Smart Village, according to Viswanadham [7] the existing infrastructure and services (such as Power, Water, Buildings, Retail, Health care, etc.) need to be upgraded and building new ones. This requires standardization, use of IT and sensor networks. In this research paper, we propose innovative approach to develop dairy IoT sensor network that enables Smart dairy, making Smart Villages a reality. We offer development of Smart Dairy IoT Sensors that not only identify cattle related health issues but also enable data and information sharing with dairy farmers for better predicting milk production and improvement of productivity. In addition, data collected from IoT sensor and analytics models play pivotal role preventing spread of viral flus and cattle health issues. Finally, data collected from our IoT Dairy sensors and analytics will enable digital transformation at village level thus enabling cities smarter. The paper presents prototyping solution design as well as its application and certain experimental results.