Optimizing Turmeric (Curcuma domestica) Production through Digital Monitoring and Precision Agriculture: A Study Using Smart-climatic Agricore Platform

Turmeric (Curcuma domestica) is an economically important crop. Rhizome production and plant metabolism in turmeric depend critically on the presence of optimum water quantity and the temperate environment. Therefore accurate climatic data readings are crucial for the management of growth stages, especially in rhizome development in turmeric plants. Important aspects of plant growth and development can be tracked through the use of precision agricultural methods. The SenzAgro Agricore platform is utilized to track the parameters, which include relative humidity, temperature, electron conductivity (EC), and soil moisture, soil moisture in the deep root system. Many metabolic complications in turmeric cultivation are solved by sensor-based daily monitoring of these factors. Managing the amount of water is feasible via soil moisture analysis and it is mainly focused on the deep root system due to the edible part of turmeric as their root system/ rhizome. Water management was practiced through the modernization technique along with digital monitoring of moisture levels. Plots were mainly divided into treatments as treated with the SenzAgro parameter while control remained under the common agronomic practices that were carried out manually. By using a digital platform and farm supervision, the behavior of the plants was carefully watched from the vegetative stage to the harvesting stage. The final yield was compared after harvest. Results revealed that the harvest obtained from the treatments was 66.9% and it was higher than the harvest obtained from the control (33.1%). Thus, the “SenzAgro Agricore Platform” proved that modernized digital reading mechanisms gave accurate micro-climatic and soil moisture readings that were essential to recognize the optimum growth and development of turmeric cultivations. Moreover, this study proposed a cloud platform, which was combined with a web-based interface and a simple sensor-based method to effectuate the task of accurate climatic investigations in real time.