Climate change is a condition characterized by changing world climate patterns resulting in erratic weather phenomena. Climate change occurs due to changes in climate variables, such as air temperature and rainfall, which occur continuously over a long period of time between 50 to 100 years.
Problem:
Climate change has negative impacts, one of the negative impacts is that it can reduce crop productivity, especially robusta coffee plants. According to research, there are at least two aspects resulting from the effects of climate change that affect the productivity of robusta coffee plants, namely rainfall and temperature.
Research conducted in one of the sub-districts in Poliwali Mandar Regency shows that the rainfall in the area from year to year is as follows:
(Rainfall Intensity)
Research data shows that increasing rainfall at a moderate level (100 – 300 mm) encourages flowering and fruiting. This causes the productivity of Robusta coffee to increase in 2020 where rainfall in the wet months is between 132 to 331 mm/mount. While the dry months occur for 3 months namely in June, July, and August. Rainfall that increases to a high level of between 300 – 500 mm (heavy rain) when coffee flowers bloom can cause fruit-set only 3.7%. Meanwhile, if heavy rain occurs during the fertilization period, it will hamper the fruit ripening process.
The research above shows that variable rainfall affects the productivity of coffee plants, so monitoring rainfall is important on coffee plantations.
Apart from rainfall, temperature is one of the variables that affect the productivity of coffee plants. The following is the average temperature in one of the sub-districts in Polewali Mandar Regency.
(Average Temperature)
The results showed that temperature can affect plant physiological processes, such as absorption of nutrients and water in the soil, photosynthesis, respiration, and photosynthetic translocation. The air temperature in the study area ranges from 22.65 – 24.47°C (Diagram 2). When the air temperature increases> 23°C then the formation and ripening of fruit can occur more quickly.
During the long dry season in 2019 with an average temperature increase of 23,48°C, it had a negative effect on Robusta coffee production. This means that an increase in temperature that is not supported by the availability of sufficient water can actually inhibit the process of flowering, formation, and ripening of fruit. The research above shows that temperature variables affect the productivity of coffee plants, so temperature monitoring is important to do on coffee plantations.
Solution:
(Microcontroller)
With the problems described above, it is necessary to have a monitoring and warning system for coffee plantations regarding rainfall and temperature. Therefore, the innovation Climate Change Monitoring System and Soil Contours to Increase Agricultural Efficiency was created. This innovation is a solution to the above problems, the tool to be made can detect weather (temperature and humidity), and Rainfall.
This innovation has additional features in the form of fire detection and ground movement detection. Therefore, can minimize the occurrence of forest or field fires with an early warning system. In addition, this innovation can minimize losses due to landslides, because basically coffee plants thrive in the highlands.
During the manufacturing process, all sensors and microcontrollers will be used to make this innovation, in this case, no kit modules are wasted because they are not used. But use it to the fullest. In addition, this innovation can be accessed via LCD and smartphones. To support environmentally friendly technology, this innovation will use energy sources from solar panels and casing materials that can be recycled.
Therefore, this innovation is very useful in increasing coffee productivity so that it can become a competitive commodity and can survive amidst the current significant climate change.
Reference:
A. W. Angka, “Dampak Perubahan Iklim Terhadap Produktivitas Kopi Robusta Di Desa Kurrak Kecamatan Tapango Kabupaten Polewali Mandar”, Agribisnis, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 133-139, Nov. 2021.
