Optimization in Hydroponic Agriculture through Synergistic Integration of DLT, IoT, and Artificial Intelligence Technologies

Abstract

To overcome the structural limitations of traditional hydroponic systems—inefficient input management, lack of verifiable traceability, high energy consumption, and absence of adaptive optimization—this paper presents an innovative architecture that synergistically integrates Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), Internet of Things (IoT), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to optimize resource management in controlled hydroponic environments. The proposed architecture constitutes a hybrid DTL, IoT and IA system founded on six principles: radical distribution of trust, defense in depth, verifiable trust through cryptographic proofs, modularity, native interoperability, and scalability. It comprises a distributed intelligent sensor network, a low-cost edge computing cluster, optimized artificial intelligence modules, and a DLT infrastructure based on Hyperledger Fabric with Raft consensus. Experimental results, obtained through system simulation on a 100 m² greenhouse and validated by partial prototyping, demonstrate robust operational performance: average latency of 847 ms from sensor to blockchain, throughput of 150 transactions per second, availability of 99.7%, support for 500 simultaneous sensors, and energy autonomy of 14 months. AI models achieve 96.3% accuracy in nutritional prediction, with pH prediction error of 0.08 units and EC error of 15 µS/cm. DDPG orchestration converges after 45 days with stabilization of the reward function. Comparative analysis reveals significant advantages: 18% yield increase, 15% reduction in input costs, 22% decrease in energy consumption during peak pricing periods, and 40% improvement in total cost of ownership over 5 years.