Automation of drip irrigation system using soil moisture and rain sensors :

Abstract

Water in the form of precipitation or irrigation, is one of the most critical crop inputs that is needed to achieve a potentially high-value crops fruits i.e.; vegetables, tobacco and nursery stock which must be of top quality to win acceptance:' in the market place. Attaining quality requires timely management decisions especially Crop production inputs. Natural rainfall is unpredictable hence there is need to detect the rainfall before the irrigation is performed. Water must be supplied in sufficient quantity or desired quantity when the crop needs it. By efficiently Controlling crops water supply, an essential production variable is being controlled beyond good soil management methods. Irrigation is the best management technique available to meet crop water requirements. The problem of water stress and water logging on the yield of the crop due to the conventional methods of irrigation of the farmland has led to the new thinking of automated water management i.e. “Automated Drip Irrigation using soil moisture and rain sensors" can boost the yield and the economy. Automated Drip irrigation system is a computerized technique of watering the field, saying labour effort and the time incurred in the manual exercise. More so, agricultural practices can be on the line throughout the year and the technique also provides the means of extracting raw data from the soil which is transformed to information that would be useful for future planting of the crop. This is essentially the major difference between the economy of advanced countries and the Developing countries. The method makes use of soil moisture sensor which is one of the devices for measuring the moisture content of a particular soil which needs an ultrasonic water level sensor for ensuring the level of water in the reservoir, rain sensor that detects the presence of rainfall in the atmosphere thus interfacing with the computer system. The maximum watering level is obtained from annual rainfall. data. The key objective of this project is to develop low-cost solar powered Automatic drip irrigation system model controlled by a microcontroller which uses soil moisture and rain sensors. The microcontroller performs user defined functions by monitoring the set point of the soil moisture sensor along with weather station sensor. Rain sensor then checks the water level sensor and outputs commands to drive appropriate actuators (relay, switch and motor pump). This control system is built around Arduino Uno microcontroller programmed using embedded C language. Inputs are the signals from three sensors namely soil moisture sensor using hygrometer module, water level sensor using the LM 324 Op-amp, and the rain sensor using FC 37. All the three sensors operate under the principle. of electrical conductivity. The microcontroller processes the input signals by using the control software embedded in its internal ROM to generate five output signals, using one of the output signals to control a relay that enables the switching on and off of the. Dc Motor water pump connected to the dripline system that irrigates the field, the second output signals to detect the presence of rainfall (rain sensor), the third output signal to check whether the soil is dry or wet at field capacity and wilting point respectively, using a soil moisture sensor while the other to output signal is to monitor the level of water in the reservoir tank using a water level sensor, before the water is pumped. The project can be applied in agricultural area of any type where there is water readily available for irrigation or even desert areas since water pumping can even be achieved by using solar power energy (clean and SMART energy) and still using that water for irrigation without hindering the ecosystem. Keywords; Automation, Irrigation, Agriculture, Soil' Moisture, Rainfall, Crop, Ultrasonic.