A FRAMEWORK FOR DEPLOYMENT OF EASY TO USE WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS FOR FARM SOIL MONITORING AND CONTROL: A CASE STUDY OF HORTICULTURE FARMS IN PWANI REGION TANZANIA

Monitoring and control of soil parameters such as temperature, moisture and micronutrients play an important role in producing quality horticulture crops. The farms at Pwani Region needed close monitoring and control of soil parameters because the type of soil in this place is alluvial which can drain water and loose macronutrients easily. Recently Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) has been used to monitors soil parameters, however many systems developed from existing frameworks were unable to meet requirements for small and medium scale horticulture farmers. This paper addresses the challenges mentioned above and provides solution that fits the left gap by improving previous frameworks. The gap was identified after comparing different WSN related technologies and requirements obtained from experts and farmers. The framework designed from this information was used to develop WSN system which can be easily used by farmers of different levels of education.