Development of an efficient irrigation and fertigation system to improve yield and improve crop quality

Soundaraja, Yasehgi (2024) Development of an efficient irrigation and fertigation system to improve yield and improve crop quality. Project Report. Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Melaka, Malaysia. (Submitted)

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Abstract

Agriculture plays a crucial role in contributing to Malaysia economic growth. Modern agriculture goes well beyond the conventional method of producing food for human consumption. Despite the increased use of modern technologies and cutting-edge agricultural processes, farmers continue to face a variety of obstacles, the most significant of which is the extremely high cost of growing the plants. Farmers also suffered inconsistencies in crop productivity and high fertiliser costs as a result of old fertilising techniques. By practicing old method, each crop receives insufficient nutrients, resulting in low-quality of yield. To overcome the above issues, we proposed an efficient irrigation and fertigation system to improve yield and quality of tomato plants. By using Hargreaves equation, the correlation between the amount of water needed by the tomato plants and surrounding temperature is investigated. Subsequently, the proposed system is developed based on Hargreaves equation in which the system able to vary the irrigation rate according to the growth stages of the tomato plants and current temperature. Three stages of growth are considered in this study; early stage (0-30 days of planting (d.a.p)), middle stage (31-76 d.a.p) and final stage (77-105 d.a.p). Moreover, a mobile monitoring application is also developed using MIT App Inventor to monitor the temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and pH level. As a result, the proposed system can increase the efficiency of irrigation and fertigation, and ultimately, reduces the farming cost.

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