ICT-based Remote Agro-Ecological Monitoring System – A Case Study in Taiwan

In recent years, information and communication technologies have opened many opportunities to modern agriculture systems. Monitoring the fruit farm is one of the potential applications that may help improving fruit farm profitability through observing the fluctuation of the oriental fruit fly population and environmental conditions in the field. These data can be used to provide knowledge or warning for the farmers and government officials to accurately respond to the variations in the field. In this study, a remote agro-ecological monitoring system is presented to be a context-aware sensor platform to analyse the relations between population dynamics of the flies in the field. The system consists of three major layers, i.e., the front-end sensing layer, the telecommunication layer, and the data collection and analysis layer. A Global System of Mobile Communication (GSM) module is used to enhance the ubiquitous monitoring capability of the system. The monitoring system has been deployed to investigate the population dynamics of B. dorsalis since August 2008. Historical sensing data is available through a web-based decision support program built upon a database and a pest population forecast model, so that farmers and government officials are able to receive realtime farm status, as well as to carry out pest control program. Compared Journal of Communication, Navigation, Sensing and Services, Vol. 1, 67–92. doi: 10.13052/jconasense2246-2120.114 c © 2014 River Publishers. All rights reserved. 68 Cheng-Long Chuang and Joe-Air Jiang with the previously version of the system, various useful functions have been added into the proposed system, and its accuracy has been improved when measuring different parameters in the field. We believe that the proposed system provides a valuable framework for farmers and pest control officials to analyse the relation between population dynamics of the fruit fly and meteorological events. Based on the analysis, a better insect pest risk assessment and decision supporting system can be made as an aid to IPM programs against B. dorsalis.