IPB University Professor: Image Processing Application Help Fruit Farmer Uniform Quality

National fruit production around 20 million tons and vegetables around 12 million tons each year. But Indonesia still import fresh and processed fruit around  1 million ton a year, meanwhile horticulture product export only aroung 0.3 million a year.

“One of the problem in developing Indonesia origin fruit is lack of uniform quality fruit. Many postharvest technologies have been applied, but the uniformity of the quality and taste of these fruits remains a determining factor, “said Prof. Dr. Ir Usman Ahmad, Permanent Professor of the Faculty of Agricultural Technology (Fateta) of IPB University during the Pre-Oration Press Conference on Campus Baranangsiang, Bogor (11/21).

To produce quality products, cultivation techniques and the application of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) must be carried out.

In postharvest, it is necessary to consider efforts to apply digital technology and artificial intelligence. The technology that can be applied to fruit sorting and fruit processing machines automatically is image processing techniques.

“This technology is cheaper because it only requires a digital camera and a computer equipped with digital connection facilities (standard facilities on a computer). This image processing technique is still limited in its use in Indonesia, but its potential is huge to increase the speed and accuracy of fruit sorting and processing based on quality and flavor, “he added.

Prof. Usman has applied this technology for sorting and processing products for several fruits. Example of the determination of arumanis mangoes based on size produces several quality classes according to applicable standards. In the gedong mango, the parameters of reding are red because the quality of the mango is represented by the orange-red color.

“For export quality mangosteen, there are additional requirements, namely the shape of normal and green petals. Image processing techniques can be used to distinguish export quality mangosteen from the size and freshness of the fruit pods. Another example is the invisible changes in ripe melons can be detected using image processing techniques.

Based on these results, in addition to facilitating the sorting process, the application of precision agriculture can also save production costs and not reduce yields, “he added. (NR)

Keyword: Image Processing Techniques, Precision Agriculture, Permanent Professor of Fateta, IPB University