John Ross P. Dela Cruz
ABSTRACT
As a developing country, the Philippines has widespread use of pesticides to control soil pests and weeds; however, these chemicals can contaminate soil and have an adverse effect on soil quality. Currently, other countries are already promoting the practice of organic agriculture in weed control, and one of them is soil solarization. This paper presents an experimental embedded system developed using evolutionary prototyping to aid in performing soil solarization. It used probes as sensors for measuring soil temperature, moisture, pH, and electrical conductivity, with Arduino and Raspberry Pi as mainboards, and a 100-watt incandescent lamp was used as for soil heating. Measurements can be seen on a liquid-crystal display screen and through a web application accessed remotely using a web browser from a device connected in the system's hotspot network.
The system was used for a 3-day and 2-week solarization using containerized sample soil that was previously infested with weeds and two layers of 50μm transparent polyethylene plastic as mulch. The temperature and moisture of the soil were measured every 6 hours throughout the process. Based on the soil's determined pH and EC on pre- and post-solarization, information, if the soil is in optimal condition for plant growth, was displayed on the application. Soil solarization using the system for both instances entailed a significant increase in temperature and a decrease in moisture, but soil status and salinity cla'ss were retained as they were before solarization. Moreover, weed germination was not present weeks after using the system which determined its effectiveness and potential as a preventive method for weed management.
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Index Terms
- SSS: Soil Solarization System
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