Application of Smart Farm System to Enhance Phoenix Oyster Mushroom Production

Abstract

Phoenix Oyster Mushroom's production, which is considered an economic mushroom in Thailand, to reach the quantity and quality that is accordant with customers' demand, requires suitable temperature and humidity control. This research aims to develop and apply for the smart farm system (SFS) designed ET-ESP8266-RS485 board to control temperature and humidity, operate and show result data through an application on the smartphone. Also, it can collect the data and analysis to compare the Phoenix Oyster Mushroom farm installing with the SFS (the test set) and the Phoenix Oyster Mushroom farm non-installing with the SFS (the control set). The result found that the SFS's control system was able to show the temperature and humidity results accurately; the average error percentage was at a low level — equal to 0.61 and 1.19%, respectively. In addition, it was able to maintain the consistency of temperature and humidity at an average of 27.67 °C and 83.36%, respectively. In contrast, the control set maintained the temperature and humidity at 32.28 °C and 69.32%, respectively. The average productivity of the mushroom from the test set was 8.1 kg and 8.48 × 6.5 cm in size. It was 1.42 times or significantly (p < 0.06) higher than the control set, which provided the average productivity of the mushroom at 5. 7 kg and 7.37 × 5.66 cm in size. The user satisfaction assessment of 30 users from using the Phoenix Oyster Mushroom farm installed with the SFS was found that the users were satisfied at the highest level ( =4.54 and S.D.=0.52). The economic analysis determined that the agriculturists would break even at 28.10 kg of Phoenix Oyster Mushroom production. The research indicates that the developed SFS can create favourable conditions for Phoenix Oyster Mushroom growth, leading to higher quantity and quality and the convenience of well-managed farming.