Abstract
It is undeniable that wireless communication technology has become a very important component of modern society. One aspect of modern society in which application of wireless communication technologies has tremendous potential is in agricultural production. This is especially true in the area of sensing and transmission of relevant farming information such as weather, crop development, water quantity and quality, among others, which would allow farmers to make more accurate and timely farming decisions. A good example would be the application of wireless communication technology to transmit soil moisture data in real time to help farmers make irrigation scheduling decisions. Although many systems are commercially available for soil moisture monitoring, there are still many important factors, such as cost, limiting widespread adoption of this technology among growers. Our objective in this study was, therefore, to develop and test an affordable wireless communication system for monitoring soil moisture using Decagon EC-5 sensors. The new system uses Arduino-compatible microcontrollers and communication systems to sample and transmit values from four Decagon EC-5 soil moisture sensors. Developing the system required conducting lab calibrations for the EC-5 sensors for the microcontroller operating in either 10-bit or 12-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) resolution. The system was successfully tested in the field and reliably collected and transmitted data from a wheat field for more than two months.
Highlights
According to a recent report by the United Nations [1], the world’s population continues to increase, reaching nearly 7.6 billion in mid-2017, adding one billion people since 2005 and two billion since 1993
Readings taken with the sensors exposed to air or with the sensors installed in very dry soil resulted in negative volumetric water content (VWC) readings for all the four Decagon EC-5 sensors
The soil moisture data from the EC-5 sensors installed in the field are wirelessly transmitted from each sensor End Node to the receiver using a long-range package radio (LoRa) transceiver
Summary
According to a recent report by the United Nations [1], the world’s population continues to increase, reaching nearly 7.6 billion in mid-2017, adding one billion people since 2005 and two billion since 1993. The global population is growing by around 83 million per year and is expected to reach 8.6 billion in 2030, 9.8 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100 [1]. Ensuring that agricultural production can satisfy the needs of a growing population, globally and locally, presents a tremendous challenge for farmers, scientists, and governments in the 21st century. It is estimated that agricultural production will have to increase by 60% by 2050 to satisfy the expected demands for food and feed [2]. During the Green Revolution of the 1960’s, the world was able to meet the demand of the growing population for food and fiber by predominantly developing new high-yielding crop hybrids, increasing the application of farm inputs (such as water, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides), and improving mechanization of farming operations. The potential environmental impacts of considerably increasing application of farm inputs was not a major concern as it is today
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