Smart Soil Farming That Runs Off the Grid
Bring sheenIoT to traditional, soil-based farms — long-range LoRa sensor networks across the fields, green energy to power it all, and an automation & AI layer you control from anywhere.
The Realities of Farming in Africa
Across Africa — and especially in rural South Africa — farms face constraints that make manual, grid-tied methods unreliable. Smart, off-grid automation is built for exactly these conditions.
No Reliable Grid
Many farms are off-grid or hammered by load-shedding. Solar and wind with battery storage keep pumps, sensors and gateways running through every outage.
No Connectivity
Fields stretch far beyond WiFi and cellular coverage. Long-range LoRa links sensors kilometres away back to one gateway — no SIM cards, no monthly data.
Water Scarcity & Drought
Water is precious and irrigation is often wasteful. Soil-moisture-driven irrigation only waters when and where the crop actually needs it.
Climate Volatility
Heat waves, frost and erratic rainfall destroy yields. Live weather and soil data let the farm react early instead of discovering damage too late.
Large, Remote Land
Walking every hectare daily is impossible. Remote monitoring brings the whole farm — and a camera on each critical point — into one dashboard.
Labour & Skills
Skilled labour is scarce and youth unemployment is high. Automation handles routine tasks while the sheenbot platform builds local agri-tech skills.
A Self-Sufficient Farm Network
Three layers make a traditional farm smart without ever touching the grid or a cellular contract: green power, a long-range LoRa network, and the sheenIoT + sheenbot automation and AI that ties it together.
Green, Off-Grid Power
Solar and wind charge a battery bank that powers pumps, valves, cameras, gateways and sheenbot — anywhere, no grid required.
Long-Range LoRa Network
Low-power sensor nodes report soil, weather and tank data over kilometres of open land back to a single farm gateway.
sheenIoT + sheenbot Logic
The real product: an automation & AI layer that turns field data into irrigation, alerts and recommendations automatically.
sheenIoT · Field Node 3
32%
19.4°C
1.1 mS
2.4 mm
14 km/h
87%
Eyes on Every Hectare
Battery-powered sheenbot nodes sit out in the field and read the soil and sky for years on a charge. They report home over LoRa, so you see the whole farm without walking it.
- Soil moisture, temperature and EC at multiple depths and zones.
- On-farm weather: rainfall, wind, ambient temperature, humidity and light.
- Water-tank and dam levels, plus flow on each irrigation line.
- Frost and heat-stress alerts pushed the moment thresholds are crossed.
- Crop cameras for remote scouting of growth, pests and theft.
One Gateway, Kilometres of Coverage
LoRa is built for exactly this: tiny amounts of data sent very far on very little power. No WiFi, no SIM cards, no monthly fees — just sensor nodes talking to a single gateway that syncs to the cloud.
Kilometre Range
A single gateway covers open farmland for kilometres — line-of-sight reaches even further.
Years on a Battery
LoRa nodes sip power, so a small cell or tiny solar panel runs a node for seasons unattended.
No Data Contracts
Only the gateway needs an uplink. The field network itself is licence-free and fee-free.
Power the Whole Farm, No Grid Needed
Solar panels and a wind turbine feed their own charge controllers and top up a shared battery bank. sheenbot then switches power to each load only when it's needed — so the farm runs through load-shedding and far from any power line.
- Photovoltaic (solar) array with a dedicated PV charge controller.
- Vertical-axis wind turbine with its own controller for low-light days.
- Battery bank rides through load-shedding, night and still weather.
- Switched relay outputs power irrigation pumps, valves, cameras, the LoRa gateway and sheenbot.
- sheenbot meters and load-sheds intelligently to stretch every watt.
pH
6.1
EC
1.7
Temp
23°
One Dashboard, Total Remote Control
Everything lives in the sheenIoT dashboard — open it on a phone or a browser and you have full remote control of your farm, from your desk or the other side of the country. (Go on — tap the switches.)
- Switch water pumps, valves and lights on or off remotely — anytime, anywhere.
- Check water quality and environment parameters live (pH, EC, temperature, humidity, light).
- Deploy and edit automation routines over the air, no site visit required.
- Track each plant’s growth progress with the camera and time-lapse history.
- Let AI learn from your data and recommend — then auto-apply — the optimal grow plan per crop.
From Data to Action, Automatically
The field network is only useful if it acts. sheenIoT + sheenbot closes the loop — turning soil and weather readings into watering, alerts and season-long learning.
Smart Irrigation
Water by soil moisture and weather, not a fixed clock — zone by zone, skipping a cycle when rain is forecast.
Threshold Alerts
Frost, heat, a dry tank, a pump that won't start or a sudden flow drop all push an instant alert.
Hardware Watchdog
Dry-run pump cut-off and leak detection protect equipment even when nobody is on-site.
Growth Tracking
Camera and sensor history chart each block's progress and flag under-performing zones.
AI Recommendations
Models learn from your seasons and suggest — then auto-apply — the optimal irrigation and input plan.
One Platform
The same sheenbot blocks and dashboard scale from a single field node to the whole farm.
Bring Smart, Off-Grid Farming to Your Land
Tell us your farm size, your power and connectivity situation, and what you grow — we'll put together a LoRa, energy and automation package that fits.
Get in touch →