The Semarang State Polytechnic (Polines) Community Partnership Program (PKM) service team held activities at Kartika Farm Semarang and SMKN 1 Bawen, recently. In the PKM Program, which consists of Arif Nursyahid, Thomas Agung Setyawan, Eni Dwi Wardihani, and Abu Hasan, a new breakthrough in the world of hydroponics by using IoT technology has emerged.
Both partners have a hydroponic greenhouse which has the same problem. The first problem is that the manager must often check the condition of the nutrient solution parameters if he does not want a decrease in production or crop failure. The next problem is that farm management is still offline, making it difficult for managers to obtain the data they need when they are not on the farm.
To deal with these problems, this PKM aims to develop a hydroponic plant parameter monitoring system along with notification of parameter thresholds using Internet of Things (IoT) technology and an online data farm administration system that can be accessed by mobile.
For the planting method, the two partners implemented hydroponics using the NFT (Nutrient Film Technique) model where plant roots were submerged in a liquid containing nutrients and circulating water for 24 hours continuously.
Sensors are installed for each partner to monitor hydroponic cultivation parameters including sunlight intensity, acidity (pH) sensor, greenhouse temperature and humidity, nutrient solution temperature, and nutrient solution height. All this sensor data will be sent in real time to the server. Farm managers can view these parameter data via the web along with notifications of each parameter if it exceeds the set threshold.
With this new breakthrough, it is hoped that it will be able to avoid production declines and crop failures and can make it easier for partners to manage administrative data anywhere and anytime.