Precision Fish Farming Systems: A Mapping Study

Smart agriculture is one of the recognized practices to food security. Also known as precision agriculture, smart agriculture is largely deployed over the Internet through the use of connected sensors and intelligent devices. Smart agriculture has been implemented in a number of forms to include smart crop farming, smart animal farming in general and recently has been adopted in smart fish farming. Fish farming is a complex process as several variables have to be controlled to ensure optimum conditions for healthy fish production. Ensuring an optimum water environment requires skilled labour and resources which may not always be available. To solve this problem, researchers have turned to precision fish farming as a means of ensuring maximum fish production. This paper reviews existing literature to identify primary studies discussing IoT web-based fish farming systems, with the aim of creating a systematic map of the studies. Peer reviewed studies published through conferences and journals were identified through database search and snowballing. Analysis of the identified papers shows that researchers in these environments have used various techniques and technologies to implement IoT based smart fish farming systems. The most popular approach being the use of sensors to monitor the pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen content and turbidity of the water. Majority of the studies reviewed report effectiveness of their methods in improving fish quality, and lowering of production costs. This systematic map would be useful to fish farmers as it shows successful IoT based implementations, hence serving as a guide to existing and new farmers. It would also be useful to IoT technology designers as it shows gaps and shortcomings in these technologies probing for more research in the area.