A mobile weather station is simply an integrated ‘smart tool’ that measures weather variability such as temperature, humidity, rainfall, wind speed and direction, soil moisture, light intensity, and many other weather data types. Elite Scientific Instruments Sdn. Bhd (ESI) WS100 Mobile Weather Station is affordable enough to install at any farm which gives the most accurate representation of the weather in a local farm. Compare to weather data found on television or internet sites provides local information is extrapolated or modelled from existing information and cannot take into account local variability, due to hills, windbreakers, obstructions, population etc.

These extrapolations often do not provide accurate information on rainfall, wind, and temperature. ESI Mobile weather station allows farmers and researchers to know exactly what is going on at their farm. ESI weather station allows us to connect to the command centre and can provide real-time data directly to our personal computer or smartphone.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Pagoh Research Centre has implemented the use of constant connectivity allowing our researchers to use real-time data for making a crop management decision. The information can be used to monitor conditions outside as well as soil health at UTM Research Farm. Our Researchers use the information to determine soil humidity and implementation of irrigation control amount and duration of watering crops in our research farm. With the help of long-range radio connectivity, sensors can be installed kilometres away from the control centre which is convenient for them.

Intervention in technology to improve the farm level of productivity is crucial to meet the growing demand. For years, the agriculture sector has been at the mercy of nature, more especially on the weather. But in these few years, various technologies intervention has helped farmers have better information on the irrigation requirement. Undoubtedly, WS100 Mobile Weather Station by ESI is a great tool in the hands of farmers today.

Acknowledgement:
Elite Scientific Instruments Sdn. Bhd.
ESI funded this research equipment for
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Pagoh Research Centre