High yield groundnut agronomy: An IoT based precision farming framework

Abstract

Agriculture is one of the main needs for human to survive. Agriculture has to tackle many problems like changing climate, water shortage, changing soil quality, etc. Due to the increasing demand for cereals and other crops for daily usage by the consumers there is a need for smarter implementation of irrigation and also develop farming methods that alter the basic eco systems and is less harmful to other creatures. India is one of highest crop producing countries all over the world. At the same time, India is facing the challenge of farmers committing suicide because of crop failure and debt. Most of the land in India is still being used for agriculture purposes. Still there exists several places that uses very primitive methods for irrigation, fertilization etc. This leads to the reduction in the crop yield and eventually less income for the farmers. This paper discusses the design and development of an IoT framework that helps farmers to improvise their methods of farming and also make the best use of their land for a better yield and income. The major goal of this IoT framework is to sense agriculture characteristics and advice farmers to properly grow and treat the crops. The system deploys a group of wireless sensor networks nodes deployed in the field for sensing agricultural parameters and the RF communication of WSN node is used to transmit the measured data to base station. Base station is connected to a decision support system. Based on the sensed parameters and the optimum values, the decision support system will generate an appropriate message for farmers. By using the collected data from the sensors, the proposed system will provide suggestions about the monitoring crop such as irrigation timings, directions for optimum usage of fertilizers etc. in accordance to the farmers' lands. An android application has been designed to deliver the messages to farmers in their regional language. The android app also gives information regarding the weather forecast and precaution to be taken based on the weather forecast.