CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Background of the Study

Agriculture in the Philippines has always been associated with manual labor and
backward tradition farming methods. For the Department of Agriculture (DA), the
stigma of farming being poor man's job doesn't make it easier to fulfill its mandate
of reaching food security or attracting more people to join the sector (Anna A.
Mogato, July 26, 2018 ). That is why the government and private sector made efforts
to address self-sufficiency in important food staples through the introduction of
hybrid seeds, innovative farming techniques, and technology to the agriculture
sector.

To solve the issue of farmers the Department of Agriculture slowly use technology
in answering the needs of the people by creating a revolutionary guide map which
plots which crops are the best grown for each area in the Philippines and terms of
smaller-scale technology, the DA also began the use of drones, which were
intended to used in vegetable farms to spray fertilizers and pesticides on a
strawberry in Benguet (). They use technology to make advances in producing more
food for a growing world.

That is why Technology plays an important role in our society nowadays. It brought
a great impact on how people live in their everyday lives. It transforms people's daily
tasks and responsibilities into a more efficient and productive one. Technology also
affects a lot of aspects of everyday living like communication, socialization,
transportation, education and even in our chores in our houses with this ever-
changing technology, it is undeniable that this is considered the most reliable source
of information. However, problems are unavoidable and may arise along with its top
of success.

The technology already has been introduced to almost all organizations, companies,
schools and even in our homes. Because of its undeniable contributions in making
everyone's tasks a more productive and efficient one. It is improved through the use
of technology and even our grandmother and grandfather, or even PWD can use
technology to help them.
Many people that have indoor garden/plants need to monitor and water their plants
each day depends of the plants they have, some of them have no time watering
them because of school, work or because they have more important things to do
they forgot to water it and unfortunately the plants will slowly die because they don't
have enough water. Considering the number of people that have a garden are older
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 people, they use old ways to water the plant-like using a watering pot with a spout.
With this method they using, it takes time to finish it.
With the advent of technology especially in the field of mobile platforms,
smartphones were developed wherein almost all people are using it in their daily
lives. With this, the researchers or developers came up with an idea to combine the
capabilities of such technology as an ideal tool with the way people will schedule
their time in watering the yard or garden. The idea of developing a mobile plant
watering system will guarantee to resolve the common problem with regarding
watering the plants.

The plant watering application, have a reminder when will the user water the plants
according to the time that he/she schedule. The idea of android based – plant
watering application will guarantee resolved the common problems of every indoor
gardener or even people that interested to plant but they have no time to water it or
people that are too old to monitor their plants.

1.1 Statement of the Problem

This study aims to address the problem of how the people in Dacon homes,

Purok 8-C, Recodo, Zamboanga City monitor the plants by how often they water

it and use it as inputs in designing the Plant Watering Application.

1.2 Research Objective

1.2.1 General Objective

The general objective of this research is to develop a mobile application

that monitors the plant-soil if it is wet or dry by using your mobile phone

and with the help of the hardware, and to set a time and day schedule for

watering the plants. This research also aimed to give further details of

information to construct more ideas for the future improvement of the

proposed application.

1.2.2 Specific Objectives

In particular, this research aims to:

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  To create a plant watering application that will suitable for everyone

even a person with a disability (a person that difficult to walk and people

can’t walk).

 To create an application that will help the user to set a scheduled time

and day to water the plants.

 To create a system with hardware that can monitor the soil if its dry or

wet.

1.3 Scope & Limitation

 This study aims to determine the needs of technology as an input to

the design of plant watering applications. The data will be based on

the response of some people of dacon homes from a survey

questionnaire.

 Only those have indoor plants/garden or those willing to have

plants in the future will be considered for the study and only the

people in dacon homes will be asked to answer the survey

questionnaire.

 This study will only monitor if the plants are already watered. It

can't inform the user if his/her plant is growing or already produced

fruit (if is a fruit tree).

 Only Android phones can use the application, like versions;

Android 5.0 Lollipop, Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Android 7.0

Nougat, and Android 8.0 Oreo.

1.4 Significance of the Research

The result of this research will be significant too:

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People that have an indoor plant. For them to realize the importance of

monitoring the plants and to find more solutions on how to address the problem of

watering the plants into the easiest way.

Future Researcher. To assist and guide them for the future related to the study

on the needs of the plant watering in supporting the design of a plant watering

application.

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 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A literature review is done to make an objective, critical summary of published

researches relevant to this study. This chapter divided into two parts. The first part

discusses related studies in the Android operating system, mobile application

development, and indoor plants or garden. The second part discusses the other

existing gardening application and they use.

2.1 Related Literature

2.1.1 The Android Operating System

Android Operating System is undeniably one of the popular operating systems has

ever developed because of its flexible capabilities and functionalities. According to

Nisarg Gandhewa and Rahila Shikh (n.d., 2010), android is a software stack for

mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware, and key applications.

Since its office public release, Android has captured the interest from companies,

developers and the general audience. From that time up to now, this software

platform has been constantly improved either in term of features or supported

hardware or, at the same time, extended to new types of devices different from the

originally intended mobile ones.

Google entered into the mobile market not as a handset manufacturer, but by

launching mobile platform called as “Android” for mobile devices such as smart

phones and net book on 5th of November 2007.

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 However, along with its improvement’s issues may arise. But Google Company

keeps on enhancing and provides more innovative ways to ensure that such

technology would provide a better performance and let every user’s know what

Android could bring into the world of technology.

2.1.2 Mobile Application Development

Wide range of mobile application have been developed and introduced with

advancement of technology in today’s generation that can be used by the users on

the move. Considering mobile phone usage has been increasing dramatically over

the last several years, mobile application development has been along with its trend.

Mobile Application development is similar to Web application development. Mobile

apps are promising, quick and convenient.

Stimulated by the growing acceptance of users for mobile apps, most enterprises are

shifting/expanding their businesses to smartphones – online selling, app ordering,

and digital payments are bringing the best in today’s businesses.

2.1.3 Indoor Plants/Garden

Many people have an indoor plant, but what is the benefits of it in us?
According to the studies many people buy indoor plants not just because it will bring
colors or beauty to an area but to improve a person physical and mental well-being
effectively purifying the air and it reducing stress by their presence.

a. How often people should water the plants.

Although the task seems a simple process, but knowing
the correct amount of the water to provide for the plants can be at tomes
perplexing. Supplying a plant with too much or too little of water are
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 both easy ways to kill the plants. That’s why the frequency of the water
depends on many factors such as type and size of the plants,
temperature and humidity within the home, weather conditions and
seasons of the year.
Over-watering is one of the common mistakes why the
plant die. That’s why I search what are the common ways to see if it’s
time to water, here are the ways (Anna Reyes, May 2018, the Ultimate
guide to indoor plants):
 Soil probe – it will draw out soil, which will help you
understand how dry the soil is below the surface.
 Moisture meter – this will help to tell you on a scale
how dry soil is.
 Lifting the plants up – if you lift up the plants and it is
light then it’s signifies the plant is dry, and if it’s heavy
then the plant has enough water.
 Wilting – become limp. It’s happens because the
plants are not getting sufficient water.
 Tipping – it’s when the leaf edges are becoming brown
but feel mushy.

2.2 Existing Gardening Application

This section presents existing Gardening Application. To provide a digital helping hand

for all the gardening needs.

2.2.1 SmartPlant

This application helps the user to identify plants and also provides a “Digital

Care Calendar” to revel everything your garden, and the plants within it need.

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You can also personalize the app by adding the specific plants you have in your

house and the app will notify the user of their requirements (Katie Avis-Riordan,

2018.).

Figure 2.2.1 SmartPlant Application

2.2.2 Leafsnap

This application helps you with identification, the app – first developed

by the University of Maryland, Smithsonian Institute and Columbia University –

contains lovely high-resolution image of leaves, flower, fruits, petioles, seeds,

and bark. As the app’s name suggests, the plant species are identified by their

leaves (Katie Avis-Riordan, 2018.).

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 Figure 2.2.2 Leafsnap Application

2.2.3 MySoil

This application is all about soil. It comes from the British Geological

Survey and enable you to check the soil in your area, in term of soil type, depth,

pH, soil temperature and organic matter content. This can help the work of the

user which plants will flourish in you locate (Katie Avis-Riordan, 2018.).

Figure 2.2.3 mySoil Application

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2.3.4 Plantifier

This application uses masses rather than the expect to help with plant

recognition. All you have to do is to upload a photo of the unknown plant, and

other users on the app can help you work it out. The application also assists

with caring for your garden, while tracking the growth of your flowers and plants

(Katie Avis-Riordan, 2018.).

Figure 2.2.4 Plantifier Application

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 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the procedure on how the study was conducted. It includes a

discussion about the research design, location where the study was conducted,

respondents involved in the study, instrument used, and methodology used.

3.1 Research Design

A descriptive quantitative research was used to conduct this study. Glass and Hopkins

(as cited in What is Descriptive Research (2001)) states that descriptive research

involves data that describe events and then organizes, tabulates, depicts and

describes the data collection. Also, according to Borg and Gall (also cited in What is

Descriptive Research (2001)) descriptive studies are aimed at finding out “what is,” so

observational and survey methods are frequently used to collect descriptive data. A

Survey questionnaire was used in this study to gather data from barangay recodo in

Dacon homes. Descriptive statistics utilize data collection and analysis techniques that

yield reports concerning the measures of central tendency, variation, and correlation.

The combination of its characteristic summary and correlational statistics, along with

its focus on specific types of research questions, methods, and outcomes is what

distinguishes descriptive research from other research types.

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3.2 Research Locale

This research aims to determine the needs of the indoor gardener in Recodo. Thus,

the gathering of data was done within Dacon Homes, purok 8-C, Recodo, Zamboanga

City.

3.4 Respondents of the Study

The target respondents of this research are the residents in Dacon Homes, Purok 8-

C, Recodo. Only those have indoor plants or willing to have plants were considered

as respondents. The population of the respondents are composed of 15 people out of

20 residents from this purok, please refer to Table 3.1.

Respondents Person No. of respondent

Student 2
Housewife 5
Teacher 2
Senior Citizen 5
PWD 1
TOTAL 15

Table 3.1 Number of Respondents

The sampling used in this study is total enumeration and out of 20 people, only 15

participated in the conduct of this study.

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 Senior Citizen PWD Student
33% 8%
Student
13% Housewife

Teacher Teacher
13%
Housewife Senior Citizen
33%
PWD

Figure 3.1 Percent of Respondents Person

Figure 3.1 shows the percent of respondents per person. Student represent 13% of

respondents while Housewife represent 33% of the total number of respondents. The

13% comes from the respondent Teachers, the Senior Citizen represent 33% of the

total number. And the last 8% comes from PWD respondents.

3.5 Research Instruments

A survey questionnaire was used to gather information for this research, please see

Appendix A. the survey questionnaire consists of sixteen (16) questions. The first two

question focused on indoor plants. The next three question focused in smartphone

and mobile application. The next (6-8) question focused in watering the plants. And

the next all questions focused about the respond of the client to the application.

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3.6 Agile Methodology

In developing a system or application there are many different system methodologies

to consider that vary in term of progress. It should be well-studies, organized, planned,

analyzed and should follow an effective methodology to be able to develop a

successful system or an application. In this study the developers will be using the Agile

Methodology, this methodology referred to a fast and able to make quick changes. it

also refers to any development process that is aligned with the concepts of the Agile

Manifesto.

The developers are following the seven (6) sequential phases in developing the

mobile application, shows on Fig. 3.1 below:

Figure 3.2: Agile Methodology

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 CHAPTER IV

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter present, interprets, and analyzes data gathered from a total of 15

respondents representing the residents of Purok 8-C, Recodo. A survey questionaires

was given to the Acting leader and out of 20 respondents, a total of 15 respondents

answered and return the survey questionnaire. Some respondents were not able to

answer the survey questionnaire because they were busy and some of the

respondents are not interested in the survey. Nevertheless, still majority of the

respondents were able to answer and return the survey questionnaires.

Table 4.1 Respondents who answered the survey

Residents No. of respondents

Able person 14
Disabled person 1
Total 15

The table above shows the total number of respondents. 14 out of twenty (20) of the

total number of respondents are Able person while One (1) are Disabled person.

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 Disabled Person
8%

Able Person

Able Person
Disabled Person
92

Figure 4.1 Percentage of Respondents who answered the survey.

Table 4.2 Summary of Respondents who have indoor plant and doesn’t have.
Have an indoor Doesn’t have
Residents Total
plant indoor plants
Student 1 1 2
Teacher 2 0 2
Housewife 5 0 5
Senior Citizen 4 1 5
PWD 1 0 1
Total Respondent 13 2 15

Table 4.2 above shows the total number of respondents who have an indoor plant

and don’t have an indoor plant but interested to have plants in the near future. 1 or

8% out of 2 students have an indoor plant and the other 1doesn’t have indoor plants.

2 or 15% out of 2 teachers answer that they have an indoor plant. 5 or 38% out of 5

housewives have an indoor plant. 4 or 31% out of 5 Senior Citizen have an indoor

plant, and 1 out of 5 Senior Citizen don’t have indoor plants. And the last one, only 1

or 8% of PWD have indoor plant.

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 Student Teacher Housewife Senior Citizen PWD

8% 8%
15%
31%

38%

Figure 4.2 Total Percentage of Respondents that have indoor plants

Student Senior Citizen

50% 50%

Figure 4.3 Total Percentage of Respondents that don’t have indoor plants
but interested to have one.

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 Table 4.3 Respondents that interested and not interested to use the app.

Interested to use Not interested at

Residents Total
our mobile app. all.
Student 2 0 2
Teacher 2 0 2
Housewife 4 1 5
Senior Citizen 4 1 5
PWD 1 0 1
Total 13 2 15

Table 4.3 shows the total number of respondents who are interested to use our mobile

app and not interested. 1 out of 2 students is interested in using our mobile app and

the other one is not interested. 2 out of 2 teachers are interested in using mobile app.3

out of 5 housewives are interested in using our mobile app while the 2 out of 5 are not

interested.5 out 5 Senior Citizen and the one PWD are interested in using our app.

Student Teacher Housewife Senior Citizen PWD

8% 15%

31% 15%

31%

Figure 4.4 Total percentage Respondents that interested to use the app.

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4.1 User Interface (UI)
4.1.1 Main Menu

Figure 4.1.1: Main Menu of PWA

The Main Menu consists of various buttons like OFF/ON button that access the
hardware device, Set Schedule to schedule the time and day to water the plants.
Check Status, to check the status of Soil and Water tank, and the last is Schedule
list, it listed the list of schedules that the user input.

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 4.1.2 Set Schedule

Figure 5.1.2: Set Schedule Screen

This figure5.1.2 allows user to select or set a schedule time and day, but in this
section, it can’t edit or delete the time or day that been set.

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 4.1.3 Check Status

Figure 4.1.3: Check Status Screen

Figure 4.1.3 allows the user to check the status of water tank if full or empty and it
will detect the status of soil if it’s dry or wet.

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 4.1.4 Schedule List

Figure 5.1.4: Schedule List

Figure 5.1.4 display the List of Schedule for Plant Watering Application and allows
the user to view, delete and edit the schedule that been set.

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 CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION

This chapter present the conclusions based on the result of this study.

Conclusion

The Android based – Plant Watering come up with a solution that monitoring the

plants by watering it in time that it’s schedule. This study come up with the solution

that every indoor gardener faced every day and that is to how they water it with the

busy schedule they have or how the senior gardener will not struggle to water their

plants. The methodology that was proposed and used was effective on the

development of the plant watering system. It was a good combination while creating

the hardware device by agile model for development method and the prototype

model for the design process of the application. By this method processes, it has

been the effective approach in the system with the hardware.

This result of this study is, user will automatically On and Off the hardware by using

their phones, they can also schedule a time and day where they want to water the

plant. This study also come up a really nice idea to monitor the status of the water

tank and soil status. The water status allows the user to monitor if is there any more

water in the tank or if its empty. And last is the user can view all the schedule that

been input in the system, it can also edit and delete their schedule that they input.

For the result of these process, the testing approach has been implemented before

and right after the development process. This approach will ensure the quality of the

system for the final delivery. We could conclude that the application was able to

come up with the proper functionality as it was design for, and also the hardware.
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Recommendation

 The future researcher can secure the security of the system by adding a log-in

form for security property.

 It is also recommended to include Wi-Fi configuration in the application.

 Researcher can also add a SMS notification, that notifies by a text if the plants

need to water.

 Change the UI to a polished and to extremely good even to another platform.

 This research only focusses to android phone, we recommend to include IOS

phones.

 Researcher can add also a Text based command.

 This study only focuses to one to one function, that is mean one plant to one

hardware (only one water pump can connect to main hardware) that why we

recommended the future researcher to create a many to many functions.

Indoor plants connect to many water pumps that connect to one main

hardware.

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 APPENDICES

Appendix A: Survey Questionnaire

Appendix B: Project Costing
Appendix C: DFD (Data Flow Diagram)
Appendix D: Flow Chart

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