DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF SMART VERTICAL GARDEN SYSTEM FOR URBAN AGRICULTURE INITIATIVE IN MALAYSIA

Authors

  • Munirah Hayati Hamidon Smart Farming Technology Research Center, Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
  • Samsuzana Abd Aziz Smart Farming Technology Research Center, Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
  • Tofael Ahamed Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 305-8572 Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
  • Muhammad Razif Mahadi Smart Farming Technology Research Center, Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11113/jt.v82.13931

Keywords:

Vertical garden system, lettuces growth, lettuces height, leaves width, number of leaves

Abstract

Vertical garden system has the potential to increase vegetable production in the urban areas in Malaysia. This research designed and developed a compact and smart vertical garden system for the urban agriculture. It also analysed the growth performances of lettuce in the smart vertical garden system which involved two phases; the development of vertical garden system and the monitoring system for nutrient solution. The growth performances of different stacks of lettuce (Lactuca sativa) in the vertical garden system were observed and compared against the commercialised conventional hydroponic system. The growth performances of lettuce in the vertical garden system showed that the most bottom stack (stack 5) of lettuce achieved the maximum level of lettuce height, and had the highest number of leaves and leaves width. Nevertheless, from the overall ANOVA results, at different levels of the stacks of lettuce, only lettuce height was observed as having a significant difference (P < 0.0001) while no significant difference was found in the number of leaves (P = 0.0002) and leaves width (P = 0.0046). The growth development varied due to different amounts of water and light exposure. On the other hand, no significant difference was found when comparing between the vertical garden system and the commercialised conventional hydroponic system (lettuce height, P = 0.4997; number of leaves, P = 0.5325; and leaves width, P = 0.5231). In short, the smart vertical garden system can give the same performance as the commercial conventional hydroponic system.

Author Biographies

  • Munirah Hayati Hamidon, Smart Farming Technology Research Center, Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
    Smart Farming Technology Research Center, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia
  • Samsuzana Abd Aziz, Smart Farming Technology Research Center, Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
    Smart Farming Technology Research Center, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia
  • Tofael Ahamed, Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 305-8572 Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
    Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences University of Tsukuba, Tennodai 1-1-1, 305-8572, Japan
  • Muhammad Razif Mahadi, Smart Farming Technology Research Center, Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
    Smart Farming Technology Research Center, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia

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Published

2019-12-04

Issue

Section

Science and Engineering

How to Cite

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF SMART VERTICAL GARDEN SYSTEM FOR URBAN AGRICULTURE INITIATIVE IN MALAYSIA. (2019). Jurnal Teknologi (Sciences & Engineering), 82(1). https://doi.org/10.11113/jt.v82.13931