Smart horticulture as an emerging interdisciplinary field combining novel solutions: Past development, current challenges, and future perspectives

Horticultural products such as fruits, vegetables, and tea offer a range of important nutrients such as protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and lipids. However, the present yield and quality do not meet the requirements of the rapid population growth associated with global climate change, the decline in horticultural practitioners, poor automation, and epidemic diseases such as COVID-19. In this context, smart horticulture is expected to greatly improve the land output rates, resource-use efficiency, and productivity, all of which should facilitate the sustainable development of the horticulture industry. Emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, big data, the Internet of Things, and cloud computing, play an important role. This paper reviews past developments and current challenges, offering future perspectives for horticultural chain management. We expect that the horticulture industry would benefit from integration with smart technologies. This requires the use of novel solutions to build a new advanced system encompassing smart breeding, smart cultivation, smart transportation, and smart sales. Finally, a new development approach combining precise perception, smart operation, and smart control should be instituted in the horticulture industry. Within 30 years, we expect that the industry will embrace mechanical, automatic, and informational production to transform into a smart industry.