Wireless Sensor Network and Internet of Things in Precision Agriculture

TLDR

IoT and wireless sensor networks provide low‑power, wide‑range data collection, and agriculture remains a vital sector for many communities. The study proposes an architecture to monitor soil moisture, temperature, and humidity on small farms to reduce water use and boost productivity. The system divides the farm into regions, uses WSN and IoT to measure soil moisture, humidity, and temperature, and sends a report with a 10‑day weather forecast to the farmer. The authors claim that this information enables farmers to schedule cultivation, harvesting, irrigation, and fertilization more efficiently.

Abstract

Internet of Things is one of the most popular subjects nowadays where sensors and smart devices facilitate the provision of information and communication. In IoT, one of the main concepts is wireless sensor networks in which data is collected from all the sensors in a network characterized by low power consumption and a wide range of communication. In this study, an architecture to monitor soil moisture, temperature and humidity on small farms is provided. The main motivation for this study is to decrease water consumption whilst increasing productivity on small agricultural farms and precisions on them. This motivation is further propelled by the fact that agriculture is the backbone of some towns and most villages in most of the countries. Furthermore, some countries depend on farming as the main source of income. Putting the above-mentioned factors into consideration, the farm is divided into regions; the proposed system monitors soil moisture, humidity and temperature in the respective regions using wireless sensor networks, internet of things and sends a report to the end user. The report contains, as part of the information, a 10-day weather forecast. We believe that with the above information, the end user (farmer) can more efficiently schedule farm cultivation, harvesting, irrigation, and fertilization.