The Design and Development of Soil Meter using Microcontroller for Organic Garlic Farm

Abstract

          This research aims to develop agricultural innovations with the following objectives: 1) Designing and developing a microcontroller-based soil meter for organic garlic cultivation, 2) Evaluating the efficiency of a microcontroller-based soil meter for planting, 3) Evaluating user satisfaction of using a microcontroller-based soil meter for organic garlic cultivation. In this research, the researchers designed and built a soil meter to measure soil macronutrients and pH levels as well as a percentage of soil moisture by using the experimental method. A sensor was used to measures change in soil electrical charge caused by different levels of soil minerals and this measured signal was interpreted by the microcontroller, WeMos D1 ESP8266 WIFI, and displayed on LCD. The measurement can be improved by calibrating the measurement results with a standard soil meter. The sample groups of this research consisted of 2 groups which were specifically selected as follows: 1) 5 experts in technology and innovation, and 2) 50 organic garlic farmers. The tools used in this research are as follows: 1) a soil meter, 2) an efficiency evaluation form, and 3) a user satisfaction evaluation form. In the evaluation phase, the efficiency of the meter was evaluated by experts who collected the data, and the user satisfaction of the soil meter was evaluated by a group of organic garlic farmers who used the meter on the actual organic garlic planting area for 3 months. The statistical analysis used in this research was to find the mean and standard deviation to interpret the results according to the score range.
          The results showed that the microcontroller-based soil meter for organic garlic cultivation can accurately measure the nutrient content in the soil. The acidity - alkalinity and the percentage of soil moisture were close to that of a standard soil meter, thus meeting objective no.1. As for the performance evaluation results by experts, it was found that the overall system performance was at a high level. The average was 4.00 and met objective no.2. The user satisfaction evaluation results of the organic garlic farmers group showed that the overall satisfaction was at a high level with an average of 4.36 and met objective no.3. The research study also found that farmers’ groups are willing to accept the application of agriculture technology, which can improve the quality of products and generate income for their families and communities according to the research team's goals.