Evaluation of Solanum melongena crop performance in artificial LED light source for urban farming

Abstract

The availability of land and resource for agriculture are depleting due to urbanization and increase in population. The agricultural crops are also susceptible to pest and disease. Hence the possibility of growing crop in an artificial LED light in an indoor facility has been explored in this study. The crop namely Solanum melongena was grown in blue and red LED light fixed at a distance of 65 cm from the ground. 9 plants were grown in sunlight and 9 plants in LED light. The plant growth was monitored using manual measurement (height, number of leaves) and image processing techniques (number of plant pixels) after 1st week of placing the sapling and during the 4th week. The performance has been compared and it showed that the plants in sunlight grow better than the plants in LED light placed at 40 cm from the leaf surface.