Traditional tea garden management equipment and tea processing equipment are slowly transforming into automation. With consumption upgrades and changes in market demand, the tea industry is also constantly undergoing digital transformation to achieve industrial upgrading. Internet of Things technology has huge application potential in the tea industry, which can help tea farmers achieve intelligent management and promote the development of the modern tea industry. The application of NB-IoT technology in smart tea gardens provides reference and ideas for the digital transformation of the tea industry.

1. Application of NB-IoT technology in smart tea gardens

(1) Monitoring of tea tree growth environment

The tea garden environment monitoring system based on NB-IoT technology is shown in Figure 1. This technology can realize real-time monitoring and data of the tea tree growth environment (atmospheric temperature and humidity, light, rainfall, soil temperature and humidity, soil pH, soil conductivity, etc.) Transmission ensures the stability and optimization of the tea tree growth environment and improves the quality and yield of tea.

(2)Tea tree health status monitoring

Real-time monitoring and data transmission of the health status of tea trees can be realized based on NB-IoT technology. As shown in Figure 2, the insect monitoring device uses advanced technologies such as light, electricity, and automatic control to realize automated operation of the insect trap without manual intervention. The device can automatically attract, kill and kill insects. It greatly facilitates the management work of tea farmers, allowing farmers to promptly discover problems in tea trees and take corresponding measures to prevent and control diseases and pests.

(3)Tea garden irrigation control

Ordinary tea garden managers often find it difficult to effectively control soil moisture, resulting in uncertainty and randomness in irrigation work, and the water needs of tea trees cannot be reasonably met.

NB-IoT technology is used to realize intelligent water resources management, and the active water pump regulates the environmental parameters of the tea garden according to the set threshold (Figure 3). Specifically, soil moisture monitoring devices and tea garden weather stations are installed in tea gardens to monitor soil moisture, meteorological conditions and water consumption. By establishing a soil moisture prediction model and using the NB-IoT data network to upload relevant data to the automatic irrigation management system in the cloud, the management system adjusts the irrigation plan based on monitoring data and prediction models and sends control signals to the tea gardens through NB-IoT Irrigation equipment enables precise irrigation, helping tea farmers save water resources, reduce labor costs, and ensure the healthy growth of tea trees.

(4) Tea processing process monitoring NB-IoT technology can realize real-time monitoring and data transmission of the tea processing machine process, ensuring the controllability and traceability of the tea processing process. The technical data of each link of the processing process is recorded through sensors at the production site, and the data is aggregated to the cloud platform by the NB-IoT communication network. The tea quality evaluation model is used to analyze the data of the production process, and the tea quality inspection agency is used to analyze the relevant batches. The test results and the establishment of a correlation between the quality of finished tea and production data are of positive significance for improving tea processing technology.

Although building a complete smart tea industry ecosystem requires the combination of other technologies and management methods, such as big data, artificial intelligence, and blockchain, NB-IoT technology, as a basic technology, provides opportunities for the digital transformation and sustainable development of the tea industry. It provides important technical support and promotes the development of tea garden management and tea processing to a higher level.