Vertical Farming Perspectives in Support of Precision Agriculture Using Artificial Intelligence: A Review

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Problems in puntuations: i.e. see lines 81, 115.

Figure 1 is missed in the text. Please introduce this figure somewhere in the text.

Please improve the resolution image quality. The reviewer cannot see them in detail, principally Figure 1.

Change the format of Figure 3. It is not clear....

The english must be improved.

From my point of view the manuscript presents too much figure....

 

Author Response

Dear reviewer
Thank you for reviewing our article and providing suggestions for improvement.

We will try to fix it according to the reviewer's suggestion (attached.

1. Problems in punctuation: i. see lines 81, 115. we have fixed lines 81 and 115 (dots)
2. Figure 1 has been given an overview of the artificial intelligence-based vertical farming proposal model, with an explanatory description of the contents of the paper
3.  Change picture 3, has been corrected to make it clearer and easier to read
4. This paper is the language of literature review studies, in which the percentage results of a large collection of collected literature are depicted in graphical form.
5. Please suggestions and corrections for further perfection of this paper

Reviewer 2 Report

This is an optimistic review of value to agricultural scientists, but some of the writing is difficult to follow and many sentences are too long. The reviewer has the following suggestions:

 

Line 13 Vertical farming offers opportunities to grow crops in an environment that carefully controls usage of growing space, energy, and water. It enhances opportunities for recycling, protection against natural disasters, provision of healthy food in green cities, and reduced usage of fossil fuels, herbicides and pesticides. This review surveys scientific literature”

Line 19 “The use of artificial intelligence with machine learning, deep learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT) in supporting precision agriculture has been of particular assistance in increasing the feasibility of vertical farming applications.”

Line 30 “reliable food supply”

Line 31 “by climate change, water scarcity, and decreased land”

Line 33 “Sustainable agriculture has become an important focus of research, and adoption of smart farming models is an essential step towards sustainability.  The smart farming model applies intelligent”

Line 38 “Vertical farming . . .” please delete. The sentence is too long and complicated.

Line 47 “[16]. Machine learning algorithms process data collected from “

Line 48 What is “vertical land technology”? Isn’t there a better set of words?

Line 50 delete after “efficiently.’  The rest of the sentence does not make sense.

Line 54 delete “and the speed (speed) of data streaming.” The phrase makes no sense.

Line 55”The study also presents” ??? Is this a new paragraph? What study? The study of machine learning? Does the reviewer mean “ The review also presents”?

Line 58 “chain and farm chain” ??

At this point the reviewer recommends that the manuscript be withdrawn as unintelligible in its current form.

 

Author Response

Dear reviewer
Thank you for reviewing our article and providing suggestions for improvement.

We will try to fix it according to the reviewer's suggestion (attached).

Reviewers have suggestions that we try to improve as follows:

1. Line 13, this abstract improved the content of the approach to the literature review using PRISMA.
2. Line 19, 30, 31, 33, 38, 47, 48, 50, 54, 55 and 58. Improvements have been made to the reviewer's directions.

Please further instructions

Regards,

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

In order to improve thw quality of this work, some comments have been given as below.

1.To review papers focusing on AI in vertical framing is not new. Please check the following published papers.

Please identify the major novelness of this work.

[1]Andrew Keong Ng and R Mahkeswaran, 2021, Emerging and Disruptive Technologies for Urban

Farming: A Review and Assessment, J. Phys.: Conf. Ser., 2003 012008, doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2003/1/012008

[2]A. Krishnan, S. Swarna and B. H. S, "Robotics, IoT, and AI in the Automation of Agricultural Industry: A Review," 2020 IEEE Bangalore Humanitarian Technology Conference (B-HTC), 2020, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/B-HTC50970.2020.9297856.

[3]R. Abukhader and S. Kakoore, “ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR VERTICAL FARMING – CONTROLLING THE FOOD PRODUCTION,” Dissertation, 2021.

[4]Saad, M.H.M.; Hamdan, N.M.; Sarker, M.R. State of the Art of Urban Smart Vertical Farming Automation System: Advanced Topologies, Issues and Recommendations. Electronics 2021, 10, 1422.

[5]Mahendra Swain, 2022, Vertical Farming Trends and Challenges: A New Age of Agriculture Using IoT and Machine Learning, Internet of Things for Agriculture 4.0 (edited by Rajesh Singh, Amit Kumar Thakur, Anita Gehlot, Ajay Kumar Kaviti), Apple Academic Press, New York.

2.The motivation of this work should be identified, since a review paper focus on AI or IoT or machine learning method in vertical farming is not new.

3.In section 2, as a research paper, the used methodology for analysis is too weak. Citation Analysis or text mining techniques could be used.

4.In section 2, why did authors select these keywords? Please provide some academic evidences to support it.

5.In section 3, the section title is "results". But, authors didn't provide any numerical results.

6. Conclusion section should be enhanced and the conclusion should be supported by "results".

Author Response

Dear reviewer
Thank you for reviewing our article and providing suggestions for improvement.

We will try to fix it according to the reviewer's suggestion (attached).

1. Reviewing papers focusing on AI in vertical farming is not new; in this paper, we did so by creating Table 2. Comparison with Other Surveys in the Literature to identify the main novelties of this work. However, none of these studies use smart vertical farming for food crops such as paddy, corn, and wheat.
2. motivation in this paper, further research on the study of vertical farming for staple crops.
3. Citation analysis or text mining techniques can be used, using the PRISMA methodology with the help of software
4. In section 2, select These keywords include formulation of research questions, the definition of search strategies, and specification of inclusion and exclusion criteria.  The literature search process is done in four stages:
   identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion, as detailed by the
   PRISMA. Only online repositories are considered for literature search (Scopus, IEEE, MDPI, and Science Direct). Secondly, additional keywords and synonyms can result in more studies on intelligent vertical farming, agricultural digitization, Agriculture 5.0, etc.
5. In section 3, the section title has improved Has been improved by describing the quantitative study results.
6. The conclusion section has been corrected, and the conclusion has been supported by "results".

Please help with suggestions and further corrections. We will fix

Regards,

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

I have looked over the new version, but it continues to have many errors of sentence organization. For example at:

Line 83 “Machine learning focuses on developing computational artificial intelligence methods that can access various types of data (text, numbers, images, video, and audio) and the speed (velocity) of data streaming using their data for self-learning [15].” This sentence makes no sense. Almost no artificial intelligence methods directly access the rate of data streaming. That information would have to be provided independently, depending on the different parts of the data collection and transmission environment. If the writers really mean this, they should express what they mean more clearly.

Here are some specific recommendations:

Line 90 “Vertical farming offers many opportunities to combine advances in genetics with advances in environmental modification and to produce guaranteed quality and quantity of crops”

Line 94 “observed from perspectives of environmental, social, and economic stability”

Line 102 “knowledge. The technology can be improved by utilizing action control systems and automation, all of which ae relevant for vertical farming [21]. The IOT approach requires a set of sensor devices, including temperature . . “

Line 109. :”smart and precise agriculture [22]”

Line 111 “as an embodiment of intelligent agriculture. Artificial intelligence methods are described that combine the processing of big data collected by IOT systems, the use of machine/deep learning in different vertical irrigation scenarios, as well as for yield predictions, monitoring growth and disease, and assessing sample quality.

              Vertical farming (VF) opens up a new era of intelligent agricultural engineering that has the potential to meet future food requirements.”

Line 121 please define “farm node” A node is usually a place where transmission lines intersect. They are quite common, and it is unclear why this is considered unconventional.

Line 171 “(CGIAR) uses a big data approach”

Figure 1 is difficult to read.

Line 161 “generating relevant data”

Line 162 “The concept of data centric agriculture has been promoted in several formats such as Agriculture 4.0, Digital Farming, and Smart Farming, and was born”

Line 174 “agriculture uses spatial- and time-based data measured from plants”

Table 1 1. “What types of digital technology are used for vertical farming and smart farming?”

Line 218  “2022 (Figure 3), 32% of the scientific publications occurred in 2021 and 25% in the first six months of 2022.

Figures 3 and 4 are not particularly relevant.

Figure 5 Can you use “research term” or “research item” instead of research object?

A better title would be “Numbers of articles in the research sample that mention specific research terms”

Line 249 “based on the occurrence frequencies of specific terms, “

Line 284 delete rest of sentence after “intelligence” but keep [2][4]

Line 287 delete “machine learning”

Figure 9 would benefit from using only the 5 main columns.

Line 384 “Considerable research has been reported on greenhouses but none was found that is relevant to vertical farming”

Line 391 “Based on the review, the proposed framework maps primarily onto 3 entities”

Line 397 delete the sentence beginning “Related research literature”

Line 412 “farming is focused on optimization and automation technologies”

Line 432 delete after “farming” until the end of the paragraph.

Line 437 “vary considerably”

Line 444 “The reliability of sensor devices”

The Conclusion section is very difficult to read and understand.

 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer

We thank reviewers for suggestions and excellent sentence paragraphs addressing these points have been added to the manuscript.

As suggested by reviewers, we've revised the point instructions available:

1. Point line 83, stay on line 46 in this paper. "are supported by data communication technology capabilities with data streaming speed (velocity) using the data for self-learning"
2. The 90 lines have been fixed, there is a line 52
3. The 94 lines have been fixed, there is a line 56
4. The 102 lines have been fixed, there is a line 65
5. The 109 lines have been fixed, there is a line 69
6. The 111 lines have been fixed, there is a line 72
7. The 121 lines have been fixed, there is a line 77
8. The 171 lines have been fixed, there is a line 101
9. The 161 lines have been fixed, there is a line 91
10. The 162 lines have been fixed, there is a line 93
11. The 174 lines have been fixed, there is a line 103
12. The 218 lines have been fixed, there is a line 132
13. The 249 lines have been fixed, there is a line 161
14. The 284 lines have been fixed, there is a line 182
15. The 287 lines have been fixed, there is a line 184
16. The 384 lines have been fixed, there is a line 256
17. The 391 lines have been fixed, there is a line 263
18. The 397 lines have been fixed, there is a line 268
19. The 412 lines have been fixed, there is a line 284
20. The 432 lines have been fixed, there is a line 305
21. The 437 lines have been fixed, there is a line 309
22. The 444 lines have been fixed, there is a line 316
23. Table 1 1. “What types of digital technology are used for vertical farming and smart farming?”
24. Figure 5  use “research term”. Numbers of articles in the research sample that mention specific research terms”
25. Figure 9 from using only the 5 main columns.
26. Conclusion section 

Thank you for your input and suggestions for improvement in our paper. We will try our best to improve according to the reviewer's recommendations.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

In order to improve the quality of this work, some comments have been given as below.

1.     In this revised version, I still cannot find the novel idea or finding.

2.     As a strict journal paper, this work lacks a formal analysis method.

3.     In addition, the conclusion should be supported by numbers from formally analysis.

4.     Authors should clarify how and why to define the keywords for searching papers.

Author Response

Dear reviewer
Thank you for reviewing our article and providing suggestions for improvement.

We will try to fix it according to the reviewer's suggestion (attached).

Comment :

1. The urgency of this paper is to find research gaps in the vertical agricultural land model applied to staple crops such as rice. New Idea or Finding: Researching the study of vertical farmland using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning on staple crops such as rice, wheat, or maize is one of the new opportunities for food crop agriculture research on vertical land that can be controlled and monitored at any time.
2. The method of analysis of this paper, using articles with selected reporting item method for systematic review and meta-analysis (PRISMA) as one of the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approaches as referred to in bibliography no. 31
3. Conclusions have been refined and supported by figures from the formal analysis. (lines 344 to 351)
   The pattern in the vertical agricultural sector continues to increase. The results can be selected in 2021 by 32%, as depicted in Figure 3 and Figure 4. A total of 91% of articles were selected to discuss vertical farming, as shown in Figure 5 and Figure 6. the distribution of the use of artificial intelligence has been carried out and found. This is seen in 47% of use in machine learning, 22% in robotic automation, and 13% in deep learning approaches. The IoT approach can be seen from the discussion of the sensor, monitoring, and LED applications shown in Figure 9, with a 28% soil research object model, 18% hydroponics, and 22% lighting and irrigation.

4. The search for the term "smart farming" then inserts the term "vertical farming," which will appear in the title, abstract, and keyword of the article with the approach of "artificial intelligence," "machine learning," "deep learning," "IoT" and intelligent algorithms applied to the system agriculture, but in searching for papers, the keyword search increases and develops based on the relationship of the previous article written in table 1 (Keyword search)

Thank you for your input and suggestions for improvement in our paper. We will try our best to improve according to the reviewer's recommendations.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 3

Reviewer 3 Report

In order to improve the quality of this study, some comments have been provided as below.

1.Please clarify PRISMA algorithm step by step.

2.Please add a section of "research gap".

3.In figure 2, please identify the criteria of selecting articles in four steps.

4.In "Results and Discussion" section, all results should be supported by numerical results.

5.The definition of research is "the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions." Please identify the new parts compared to published works.

Author Response

Dear reviewer

Thank you for reviewing our article and providing suggestions for improvement.

We will try to fix it according to the reviewer's suggestion (attached).

Comment:

1. Clarify the PRISMA algorithm step by step. PRISMA method in compiling research a systematic review and meta-analysis. This step has been added to lines 117-135 in Steps for preparing a checklist item for a systematic review and meta-analysis.
2. Add "research gaps" section, added on lines 185-194, Potential research gaps in vertical farming with artificial intelligence.
3. In Figure 2, the description of the Literature Review with the four stages of PRISMA evaluation has been added with the criteria of 4 sets of process lines 147-163
4. In the "Results and Discussion" section, numerical results have been supported on lines 316 – 331
5. What is meant by research is “a systematic investigation and study of materials and sources to establish facts and reach new conclusions. Corrected in this paper on lines 378 – 384 and 418-420.

Thank you for your input and suggestions for improvement in our paper. We will try our best to improve according to the reviewer's recommendations.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 4

Reviewer 3 Report

All of my comments have been considered in this version.