The Application of IoT in Grain Storage Management for the Food Reserve Agency

Abstract

The Food Reserve Agency (FRA) plays a crucial role in Zambia’s food security, yet inefficiencies in manual stock management, environmental monitoring, security, and logistics hinder its effectiveness. This study proposes an IoT-based model to automate monitoring, enhance security, and optimize grain storage management through real-time data collection. The IoT prototype integrates DHT11 (temperature and humidity), PIR motion, rain, flame, gas, and light sensors with an ESP32 NodeMCU, SMS-based alerts, and SSL encryption for secure data transmission. Experimental results from the storage facility detected temperature spikes of 32.8°C, indicating potential pest infestation risks, while motion sensors identified object movements. Additionally, database performance analysis showed the non-aggregated data insertion algorithm (4.44 records/sec) outperformed the aggregated approach (0.29 records/sec), emphasizing the need for optimized data handling in IoT implementations. These findings confirm that the proposed IoT-driven storage system effectively mitigates FRA’s operational challenges by automating stock tracking, improving environmental monitoring, enhancing security, and optimizing logistics, contributing to IoT-based agricultural advancements and sustainable food security solutions.