The Role of Smart Irrigation in Agriculture

The agriculture industry receives an influx of digital solutions that ease challenges associated with traditional irrigation systems.

FREMONT, CA: Achieving sustainable development goals and improving food security requires sustainable smart irrigation. Traditional irrigation systems lose water through evaporation, seepage, and deep percolation, so smart irrigation ensures the plant roots receive water in real-time. It is possible to save water, energy, and labor when smart irrigation is monitored and controlled effectively. Increasing crop yields per drop is a potential climate change adaptation strategy that ensures a reliable food supply year-round through smart irrigation.

The following irrigation technology improves farming practices.

Wireless sensor networks (WSN): It is possible to monitor plants and soil through WSN, which can substantially improve production, efficiency, and profitability. It is important to provide effective monitoring and communication to reduce the risks associated with adverse climate conditions, water shortages, insect infestations, and other factors that are unfriendly to agricultural growth and development. Agricultural WSN allow for faster reaction times since they provide real-time sensing and communication. Several irrigation scheduling techniques utilize wireless sensors, and the gateway automatically activates the irrigation system based on threshold temperature and soil moisture levels. Commercially available sensors, modules, and valves for managing stationary irrigation systems are quite sophisticated but expensive to install.

Internet of Things (IoT): Digitally integrated soil sensors, context-aware sensors, and customized devices will enable precision farming through the Internet of Things. Utilizing data analytics during each stage of the growing and harvesting process enables farmers to resolve complex agricultural problems such as soil preparation, water feed estimation, and yield prediction. The amount of water at different intervals has been predicted using several mechanistic irrigation scheduling systems based on soil moisture content and climatic data.

Sensors: When scheduling irrigation based on soil moisture levels, it is essential to determine the soil moisture state within the root zone and the permanent wilting point. Sensors can trigger irrigation by comparing soil moisture measurements with moisture thresholds. Sensors for measuring soil moisture include time-domain transmission, neutron probes, capacitance, or granular matrix sensors. Due to the ability to measure spatiotemporal variations in soil moisture, soil moisture-based irrigation scheduling allows variable rate irrigation.