Wireless sensor network system for microclimate and soil nutrients monitoring in precision agriculture

Abstract

Over the past decades, the world has experienced some noticeable climate change due to global warming. Agriculture is one of the most vulnerable sectors under climate change as the crop productivity hugely relies on climatic conditions. Furthermore, due to rapid population growth, food demand is rapidly rising that leads to agriculture intensification and increased land clearing despite of the fact that cultivable land is limited. However, meeting the rising food demand both in terms of quantity and quality remains a huge challenge at this juncture. It is therefore, imperative for the farmers to seek help of the sustainable and robust modern technologies to enhance their crop productivity. In this research, a lab designed wireless sensor network system based on Zigbee module and an electronic nose based on metal oxide gas sensors were assessed and implemented to monitor microclimatic conditions and to predict soil nitrogen content respectively. The results revealed that the system was not only capable of monitoring real-time microclimatic conditions, but also can adequately predict crop yield based on the acquired weather data. Additionally, the electronic nose coupled with radial basis function was found to efficiently predict the soil nitrogen concentration with 96.2% accuracy, and that it has huge potential of offering an alternative to conventional soil testing methods. In the future, the capability of electronic nose and radial basis function in determining soil organic matter needs to be explored.