BUKIT KAYU HITAM, April 1 — The Malaysian Pineapple Industry Board (LPNM) will expand the use of technology for pineapple cultivation activities in the country which can have a positive impact on production of the crop.

LPNM chairman Datuk Dr Sahruddin Jamal said it was in line with the government’s efforts in meeting the challenges of Industrial Revolution 4.0 which was growing rapidly around the world, including in the agricultural sector.

In this regard, he said the new technology suitable for pineapple cultivation was the Internet of Things (IoT) to increase efficiency in agriculture.

"What is most important for this IoT technology is that it can save farm operating costs through accurate data on actual needs required by pineapple crop,” he told reporters when visiting the Ber One Agro pineapple farm here today.

Also present was LPNM deputy director-general (Planning and Development) Mohd Khairuzamri M Salleh.

The Ber One Agro pineapple farm covering 16.187 hectares is the first in Kedah to use the IoT technology since six months ago.

Sahruddin said the pineapple plantation which used the Smart Tani system enabled data related to crop agronomy such as the percentage of fertiliser content, soil pH, humidity, temperature and rainfall distribution to be obtained to determine the actual needs of the pineapples to grow through IoT.

"With this Smart Tani system, local data collected by sensors in crop plots will be sent to a Sigfox Cloud network system which is then collected in a platform called SATU Dashboard.

"All data will be able to be seen and evaluated easily through smart phone applications or tabs wherever we are to determine the real needs in the field.

"This way, the farm owners will be able to carry out the work on the farm by delegating it to their employees without having to be present at the farm,” he said.

Sahruddin said the use of the latest technology such as IoT could increase the country’s pineapple crop area to 20,000 hectares in line with LPNM’s target in the 12th Malaysia Plan for the period of 2021 to 2025 compared to 16,000 hectares in 2019.

"Technology in the pineapple sector also includes technical aspects in crop management such as fertilising using drones, fertilisation methods such as using foliar fertiliser, the use of machinery such as boom sprayer, induction technology, pollination, weed control management, post-harvest management and others,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mohd Khairuzamri said so far, the use of IoT technology had been expanded for pineapple cultivation in Negeri Sembilan and Selangor apart from Kedah, and he hoped more pineapple plantation operators in the country would adopt the technology.

"This is important for the long-term benefits for pineapple plantation owners,” he said, adding that plantation operators who are interested in using IoT can refer to LPNM.

Ber One Agro pineapple farm owner Zulkafli Saidin said the IoT technology has facilitated his farm management work immensely.

Zulkafli said before using the technology, he could only make rough estimates but after installing the technology he could get accurate data in terms of fertiliser content, soil pH as well as temperature.

"Everything is at my fingertips. I only need to check on my phone for important data such as soil pH and if my pineapple is not sweet, I can look at the data to find out the cause,” he said. — Bernama