Internet of things system through message queue telemetry tracking protocol for modernizing red chili agriculture

Abstract

The rate of food imports of the country continues to show an increase from year to year especially red chilies. Malaysians still spend most of their income on food. At the same time, domestic food production for certain foods continues to decline. This situation in turn will lead to the problem of low-income ability and the country should continue to import food from foreign countries. A study in 2018 showed that the import dependency (IDR) rate of the Malaysian population for red chili is 73.1%. Although specific planning has been made through the National Agricultural Policy, but food imports continue to increase. In the era of technological development of the 4.0 industrial revolution, the country's agricultural sector needs to follow this revolution to maximize production and meet the demands of society in Malaysia currently. Cultivation areas that are far from facilities, especially electricity, make it difficult for crop farms to operate more modern in accordance with the current development era. The use of renewable energy, namely solar energy as the main source of energy is needed to make plantations equipped with modern equipment that requires a source of electricity to operate. This research proposed smart farming method studies the growth rate of plant roots based on soil factors namely pH and moisture. Data obtained from pH sensors and moisture sensors will be transmitted to cloud using MQTT protocol. The data will be analysed by Raspberry Pi and the system will determined the appropriate irrigation and fertilization to increase the growth rate of roots. This system will continuously monitor the environment crops include sources of electricity supply using photovoltaic system (PV) systems. The planting site is divided into two (2) zones to facilitate monitoring and control operations. From the results of the study conducted, the system will ensure that the soil pH rate is suitable for chili cultivation which is between 5.5 - 6.5 while the suitable soil moisture is between 55% - 70%. If that value is not reached, the system will turn on the necessary pump automatically. Manual control mode is also provided to give convenience to users. Users can also observe the system operating by using web access or android applications.