The Student Creativity Program Team in the Application of Science and Technology (PKM PI) Student Activity Unit for the Knowledge Development of the Politeknik Negeri Semarang (UKM PP Polines) chaired by Daffa Fajar Saputro (Electrical Engineering) with members Andri Zani Sarianto (Electrical Engineering), Nurul Azmi (Accounting), Narendra Dinasty Deva PP (Electrical Engineering) and Sifa Nur Hidayat (Electrical Engineering) with the Advisory Lecturer Syahid ST MEng successfully implemented a smart farming system for mushroom cultivation based on IoT (internet of things). The team also succeeded in creating a temperature and humidity monitoring tool in the cultivation room as well as controlling supporting utilities in the mushroom cultivation process.
The Polines team partnered with Imam Puguh Iswanto (an oyster mushroom farmer in Kepoh Hamlet RT 01 RW 12, Wujil Village, Bergas District, Semarang Regency). Imam has been cultivating mushrooms since 2016 but still uses conventional equipment made of pipes and drums.
“However, this method has problems, namely the timing of determining the watering is not right. The temperature and humidity gauges used are still very conventional and often even damaged," said Daffa Fajar to the press, Saturday (10/9/2022).
Temperature and humidity, added Daffa, in mushroom cultivation are very necessary to produce quality products. In the phase of fruiting body formation requires temperatures between 27°-29°C with humidity between 70% – 90%. Both of these things are quite exhausting for oyster mushroom cultivators because they have to go back and forth to water the mushrooms in order to get the temperature and humidity that suits the needs of oyster mushrooms. The right moisture content will determine the success of mushroom cultivators.
Water content that is too high in the media will cause mycelia (early forms of fungi) to become difficult to transpire (remove water content), while water content that is too low causes mycelia unable to grow.
“From these problems, innovations emerged from the PKM Team - Application of Science and Technology Student Activity Unit for the Knowledge Development of the Politeknik Negeri Semarang in the form of IoT-Based Mushroom Cultivation System technology. The creation of this tool is expected to be able to help mushroom farmers in Kepoh Hamlet, Semarang Regency to increase their productivity.
“This tool has been used to help mushroom cultivation owned by Imam Puguh Iswanto's partner and received quite good feedback. Currently, the tool is still being evaluated and plans are being made to continue to be developed and have a sustainable program,” said Daffa. (Sgi)
Source: KRJOGJA.com