WSN prototype for African oil palm bud rot monitoring

Abstract

The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is the most productive oleaginous on the planet. The world’s largest producers of oil palm are located in Asia, Colombia is the fourth largest producer in the world and the first in America. In recent years, the sowing of oil palm has taken a great importance in food industry and biofuel production. Bud rot is among the factors that are most affecting this type of crop, generating to palm farmers large economic losses and the country’s social problems due to unemployment. Early detection of abiotic factors that may trigger bud rot is one of the strategies that would allow palm farmers to minimize the impact on the crops. In this research, a WSN was developed to acquire, process and transmit in real time to a server acquired data as: pH, humidity, temperature and luminosity.