IΤ-Monitoring of Soil and Environmental Condition of Cabbage Field in Cold Upland Using Field Server.

       Information Technology (IT)-monitoring using Field Server has attracted attention for precision agriculture in Japanese small scale farming. Field Server is an intelligent sensor node web-server that is equipped with camera and sensors for agrometeorological, soil, and plant growth monitoring.  To showcase this technology, a demonstration experiment was conducted in a cold hillslope cabbage field in Tsumagoi, Gumma Prefecture, Japan. Real time dynamic changes in soil moisture, soil solution electrical conductivity, agrometeorological and environmental information were measured and monitored using a Field server throughout the duration of the cabbage growing season and the winter season.

       Field Server had worked stably during experiment season without electrical power cut.With remote monitoring set-up, understanding and easy assessment of the salient field conditions and critical crop growth stages were made possible. Monitored IT-data sets were found realistic and were analyzed using a conditional model to estimate evapotranspiration rate and cabbage growth parameters.

       Based on the findings of the demonstration experiment, the Field Server system was found effective, reliable and efficient in monitoring soil and agrometeorological information in cabbage field environment. Meanwhile, real time monitored IT-data can be accessed by farmers through the internet which serves as their basis to make right decisions of the proper time to irrigate, how much to irrigate and when to apply fertilizer for optimum crop growth and yield. The system may be adapted for other crop environment such as rice environment and for other.