CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
From massive agribusiness players like Cargill to small organic farmers, growers all over the world
are using the Internet of Things to reduce their consumption of water and fertilizers, cut waste and
improve the quality or yield of their products. By using the concept of modern irrigation system a
farmer can save water up to 50% compared to the traditional techniques like sprinkler or surface
irrigation. (S. Sheroz, 2015).
Also, in dry areas, where there is no sufficient rainfall, proper irrigation is not possible. Hence by
using this irrigation system by monitoring the moisture content of soil are can meet the water
requirements necessary for the field. To save effort of farmers, the important considerations are
water and time. In present condition, they need to wait until field is fully watered. This restricts
them to do other activities. This system will completely eliminate the stress of manual Labor.
Overcoming these drawbacks, new techniques are been adopted in the irrigation techniques through
which small amounts of water applies to the parts of root zone of a plant. The plant soil moisture
stress is prevented by providing required amount of water resources frequently or often daily by
which the moisture condition of the soil will retain well.
Following the historic climate change happening around the world, forced many growers to search
for ways of using less water. Tech providers are helping them with tools such as drone imagery and
soil sensors, which measure real-time conditions. According to The Nature Conservancy, such
precision agriculture can enable farmers to cut water and fertilizer use by up to 40 percent, without
reducing yields. By improving the irrigation efficiency in agricultural sector, this industry become
more competitive and sustainable.
As agriculture is the backbone of all developed countries. It uses 85% of available fresh water
resources worldwide and this percentage continues to be dominant in water consumption because of
population growth and increased food demand (S. Darshna, 2015). Due to this efficient water
management is the major concern in many cropping systems in arid and semi-arid areas. Arduino
based plant communicator helps the farmer by checking the moisture of the soil and if the moisture
is below the level then automatic water is irrigated.
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Internet of Things (IoT) in the context of Nigeria is not quite affordable or available. Though there
remains an eagerness for technology, this is largely due to the ignorance of the emergence of those
very technologies, lack in adapting to the pace of change and lack of adequate budget with general
population. This project targets the agriculture sector with focus on making a cheaper and utility-
based variant of the plant communicator in alternative to those already existing but too expensive to
farmers and small agribusiness.
AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The main aim of this project is to create plant communicator device based on Arduino which help
us to monitor moisture, temperature, light and irrigate if the moisture level is below.
OBJECTIVES:
• Create a plant irrigation system based on Arduino, Moisture, Temperature and light sensor Use
Arduino IDE for coding in Arduino device and various dependencies.
• Proper research for Arduino device, modules, Programmable Computer Boards (PCBs) and their
circuit.
• Proper circuit design for the project.
• Proper testing and debugging of the device configuration.
• Create proper prototype of Plant Communicator.
• Conducting a survey regarding the project.
• Provide the proper value of Moisture, Temperature and Light.
• Research on various similar system.
METHOD OF ACHIEVING THE OBJECTIVES
In this chapter, the objectives are to learn, develop and furnish the project. To see, step-wise how
things are implemented and put together to bring the project live. Our edible food items and
everything is produced through a system which is called irrigation system. The main objective is to
take the irrigation, a next step further. The major parameters to be measured, to make it smart is to
monitor the temperature and humidity (presence of rain) and then control the watering system
through the submersible pump. And, all these sensors and pump are connected through the
Raspberry Pi. In simple words, on one side, the Raspberry Pi monitors the Temperature and
Humidity though the respective sensors. And, on the other hand Pi checks the condition and judges
if the watering is necessary or not. The following steps guides through the procedure undertaken to
make Irrigation Smart:
Step1: In this above proposal two different types of sensors (i.e. temperature& moisture) are used
to detect the required scarcity of water in the soil for proper undergoing of the process, that is, for
proper irrigation.
Step2: Required action by the help of controller (i.e. Raspberry pi 3 model b+) is to be taken for the
deficit of the physical parameters of the soil for a healthy process.
Step3: An autonomous system is implemented here for taking the action by supplying adequate
amount of raw materials (i.e. water) through the pump which is indeed controlled by the Raspberry
Pi itself.
Step4: For the exact amount of water in the soil to be measured is to read the analog output of the
Moisture Sensor. But since, Raspberry Pi cannot read analog outputs, an external open source
microcontroller, Arduino Uno is used.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
In this research, it does a good job of identifying the most common architecture, components,
software, and technology used in irrigation systems, and tries as much as possible to focus on
irrigation system alone and not agricultural system at large as this will be too broad and complex.
Published research has shown that the agricultural yield can be improved by using methods beyond
irrigation systems. Additionally, many systems beyond irrigation are required to boost farming and
agriculture yield.
LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
Automated irrigation system uses only two parameters of soil like soil moisture and temperature
other parameters humidity, light, air moisture, soil ph value not taken for decision making. This
system works on soil moisture and temperature sensor threshold value. It just shows the soil
condition and system take decision on threshold values.
