Rice (Oryza sativa) Monitoring and Calendar System Using Android phone and Arduino

Microcontroller

Rational

Rice is the seed of the grass species Oryza sativa (Asian rice) or Oryza
glaberrima (African rice). As a cereal grain, it is the most widely consumed staple food for a large
part of the world's human population, especially in Asia. It is the agricultural commodity with the
third-highest worldwide production (rice, 741.5 million tonnes in 2014),
after sugarcane (1.9 billion tonnes) and maize (1.0 billion tonnes).

Rice employs 2.5 million households, broken down into 2.1 million farmers, 110,000
workers for post-farm activities and 320,000 for ancillary activities.
Global Cost and Price Competitiveness of Philippine Rice, L. Gonzales, 2013.

Based on past research by Schultz (1964) and others, farmers are deemed “rational but
poor”, hence the persistent failure to apply the right amount of nitrogen fertilizer is puzzling. It is
one of the problems encountered of farmers during their rice monitoring.
This study hopes to enhance the practice of activities and monitoring of farmers to their
rice plants from planting to harvesting. Farmers can be easily notified the right time of fertilizer
application, spraying of insecticides and utilization of water and removal of weeds.

Objectives of the Study

Generally, the study aims to develop a “Rice (Oryza sativa) Monitoring and Calendar
System Using Android phone and Arduino Microcontroller” that enables the farmers easily
monitored their crops.

Specifically, it aims to:

1. Monitor the farmer’s crop using SMS notifications.

2. Provide necessary actions to farmers when there are problems in rice plants.
3. Offer a well-organized rice farm using Arduino and Android phone.
General Procedure

The study will be conducted in a rice farm that the farmers will set the start date of planting
rice. From the start date set by the farmer, the system of Android phone will be activated and count
the day/duration of the procedures to be done in monitoring rice plants. The farmers will get SMS
notifications. The content of the SMS notifications are the actions needed by the farmers to
perform in their crops.

Risk and Safety

The amount of fertilizer and insecticides to be applied in rice plants are not part of the
study. Ignoring the SMS notifications will result to unmanaged crops. The Android phone must
have load to send text message to the farmers. If there is no load, the important notifications will
not be received by the farmers. The materials should be placed properly to prevent electrical
problems.

Testing and Procedure

There are two types of testing. One is hardware and Android app testing and other is
harvested rice/output testing. In hardware and Android app testing, all the materials will be tested
including Arduino, GSM module, Android phone and soil moisture sensor. The harvested rice will
be tested in accredited institutions like Department of Agriculture and International Rice Research
Institute.

Data Analysis

In data analysis, the harvested rice from the proposed project will be compared to the
commercial rice. The following quality factors relate to grain length, stickiness, aroma,
texture, and flavor. Nutritional content may also vary between different types of rice.

References

Online References

http://ricepedia.org/rice-as-food/quality-factors

https://ejournals.ph/article.php?id=5673
https://pidswebs.pids.gov.ph/CDN/PUBLICATIONS/pidsdps1601.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46447037_The_rice_problem_in_the_Philippines_tren
ds_constraints_and_policy_imperatives

http://thingsasian.com/story/rice-much-more-food

http://www.fao.org/3/ae946e/ae946e03.htm