UTP Citizen Science Initiative: PREDITACK – Smart Sawah 2026
On 11th August 2026, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) conducted a live field demonstration for the citizen science initiative PREDITACK: Smart Sawah 2026 at Lakeside, Village 7, UTP. Led by UTP researcher Ts. Dr. Mazeyanti Ariffin, the session engaged over 30 paddy farmers from the local districts of Bota and Lambor.
Lembaga Pertubuhan Peladang Kawasan Bota/Lambor is the collaborator for this event.
The programme bridges academic technological innovation with ground-level community farming, delivering low-cost, smart agricultural solutions to address two major yield-depleting threats in Perak's paddy fields: Golden Apple Snails (Pomacea canaliculata) and Oval Pondweed (Monochoria vaginalis).
What is PREDITACK?
PREDITACK (Predictive Detection, Identification, and Tackling System) is an IoT-enabled smart farming framework designed for real-time monitoring, early forecasting, and targeted pest/weed intervention in paddy ecosystems.
Core Components
- IoT Sensing Nodes: Lightweight, solar-assisted sensors deployed directly in paddy plots to track field conditions (water level, water temperature, soil moisture, and ambient humidity).
- Computer Vision & Image Scanning: AI camera units trained to scan and distinguish crop stems from invasive aquatic weeds and snail egg clusters.
- Predictive Analytics Engine: Machine learning algorithms that map environmental conditions against historical pest reproduction cycles to forecast outbreak risks before visible crop destruction occurs.
- Citizen Science Portal: A mobile-accessible platform where farmers receive automated early-warning alerts, report real-time field observations, and view localised risk maps.
How PREDITACK Addresses Paddy Field Threats
1. Managing Golden Apple Snails (Pomacea canaliculata)
Golden Apple Snails (GAS) cut young rice seedlings at the base, capable of destroying entire freshly transplanted plots within a few nights.
| Challenge | Traditional Approach | PREDITACK Solution |
|---|
| Detection | Manual walking through flooded plots; missed egg clusters. | Automated vision scanning for distinct pink egg clusters and snail movement. |
| Outbreak Risk | Reaction only after visible seedling damage occurs. | Predictive alerts triggered when water levels and temperatures favour snail activity. |
| Control Action | Heavy, non-selective chemical molluscicide spraying. | Precision immobilisation traps and targeted organic biocontrol triggers. |
- Early Egg Cluster Detection: High-contrast colour detection identifies bright pink GAS egg masses along drainage edges and paddy stems, alerting farmers to destroy egg clusters before hatching.
- Water-Level Driven Suppression: PREDITACK guides precision water management—advising farmers to temporarily lower water levels during critical seedling stages to restrict snail mobility.
- Targeted Immobilisation: Integration with automated traps or micro-dosed organic biocontrols immobilises snails locally without contaminating surrounding water channels.
2. Managing Oval Pondweed (Monochoria vaginalis)
Oval Pondweed (known locally as Keladi Agas or broadleaf pickerelweed) competes aggressively with young rice crops for nitrogen, sunlight, and canopy space, leading to significant yield reduction.
- Early-Stage Weed Identification: Distinguishes young weed shoots from paddy shoots using leaf-geometry algorithms during the critical 1–3-week post-planting window.
- Density Heatmapping: Generates field maps highlighting weed concentration zones, allowing farmers to perform spot-weeding or micro-targeted eco-herbicide spraying rather than blanket field treatments.
- Growth Stage Tracking: Predicts the optimal timing for intervention before the weed flowers and disperses seeds into the field soil bank.
Key Benefits for Bota & Lambor Farmers
1 Reduced Input Costs: Cuts pesticide and herbicide usage by pinpointing exact intervention areas, saving on chemical expenses.
2 Yield Protection: Prevents early-stage seedling loss, safeguarding crop stand density and final harvest tonnage.
3 Labour Efficiency: Replaces labour-intensive manual field scanning with automated mobile alerts.
4 Environmental Sustainability: Minimises toxic chemical runoff into the Perak River basin, preserving natural predators like fish and freshwater crabs that help control snail populations naturally.
5 Community Empowerment: Farmers actively shape the AI prediction models by uploading field reports, creating a localised knowledge network tailored to the climate conditions of Bota and Lambor.
CITIZEN SCIENCE BENEFITS TO COMMUNITY OF PADDY FARMERS IN BOTA/LAMBOR
Citizen Science initiatives like PREDITACK: Smart Sawah 2026 create a collaborative bridge between university researchers and rural agricultural communities, delivering direct, boots-on-the-ground advantages to farmers in Bota and Lambor.
1. Direct Access to Precision Agriculture Technology
Smallholder farmers often face financial or technical barriers to adopting advanced farming technologies. A citizen science framework introduces IoT sensors, AI-driven crop monitoring, and predictive analytics directly into local fields at little to no adoption cost, levelling the playing field against large-scale commercial estates.
2. Localised Problem-Solving & Hyper-Local Data
Commercial tech solutions are often generalised, but agricultural challenges—such as specific soil profiles, microclimates, water acidity, and localised pest pressures in the Perak River basin—vary drastically by region. By involving farmers in data collection and field testing, the AI models are trained on real-time data from Bota and Lambor, resulting in pest and weed predictions that are custom-fit to local conditions.
3. Immediate Economic Savings & Cost Reduction
Farmers often overspend on blanket applications of chemical molluscicides and herbicides as an insurance policy against pests and weeds. Citizen science training empowers farmers with exact threshold data and heatmapping, allowing them to:
- Cut chemical expenditure by treating only infested zones.
- Reduce labour hours spent on manual scouting and repetitive manual weeding.
- Prevent costly crop replanting by catching Golden Apple Snail infestations before they destroy newly transplanted seedlings.
4. Knowledge Transfer & Digital Capacity Building
The programme fosters continuous technical exchange between UTP researchers (led by experts like Ts. Dr. Mazeyanti Ariffin) and the local farming community. Farmers gain digital literacy skills—learning to use mobile alert apps, interpret sensor analytics, and understand ecological cycles—which modernises traditional farming practices across generations.
5. Long-Term Environmental & Soil Health
Heavy chemical usage degrades soil microbiome health and pollutes local waterways over time. By shifting towards precision monitoring and early-intervention strategies, the community protects the natural ecosystem of Bota and Lambor, preserving water quality, local aquatic life, and long-term soil fertility for future harvests.
PREDITACK: Smart Sawah 2026 — Empowering farmers through IoT, AI, and community-led science for a more resilient paddy ecosystem in Perak.
