Development of affordable ICT solutions for water conservation in agriculture

Abstract

Today, Infonnation and Communication Technol ogy (lCT) is ubiquitous. It has touched almost all spheres concerning human suIVival, growth and development. Agriculture is no exception to it. This paper presents the research initiatives towards improving irrigation efficiency through affordable ICT solutions. It presents experimental results of studies related to improving irrigation efficiency in Semi arid zones in India, using commercially available ICT solutions. It compares between simple microirrigation and microirrigation with ICT (irrigation on demand) and establishes that by using ICT in agriculture, we can increase the irrigation efficiencies by a considerable amount. The paper also presents the development of indigenous wireless sensor node and gateway made from open source hardware and software components. The efforts in this regard show, while maintaining comparable perfonnance, a significant reduction in the cost of wireless sensor devices, when compared to commercially available wireless sensor devices, is achieved.

Blockchain for precision irrigation: Opportunities and challenges

“…Hence in recent time, to overcome aforementioned issues, there is large count in adoption of ICT in agricultural industry which is termed as PA. 40 It includes remote control of water management, PI, observation of pH, nutrient content analysis, and assessment of moisture in soil, monitoring of crop fields remotely using any smart devices such as smart-phone, robots, and sensors. 36,37,40,41 PI is a precision activity which involves the accurate assessment of the crop water requirements and the precise application of this volume at the required time. 35,42,43 PI is holistic and involves optimal management of the temporal and spatial components of irrigation and water.…”

“…It has benefits such as reduction in water use, improvement in the crop yields, minimizing cost of inputs, and reduction in risk. Authors in References 36‐39 applied ICT‐based techniques such as RS, GIS, GPS, and WSN in irrigation systems to enhance irrigation system and agricultural water management system efficiency's. PI has various number of advantages such as (i) Efficient water utilization is possible through PI, (ii) PI increases efficiency and production of crops in agricultural, (iii) PI reduces the adverse impact of industrial agriculture on seas, oceans, and freshwater, and (iv) PI maintains and increases the health of ecosystems and land management.…”

Applications of Information and Communication Technology for Improvements of Water and Soil Monitoring and Assessments in Agricultural Areas—A Case Study in the Taoyuan Irrigation District

“…Jiang et al [14] proposed a water environment monitoring system that consisted of data monitoring nodes, data base stations, and remote monitoring centers based on a WSN. Adil et al [15] improved irrigation efficiency by developing a system based on ICT systems. Bartlett et al [16] and Sesma et al [17] applied ICT to irrigation systems at the irrigation district scale.…”

Blockchain: The Evolutionary Next Step for ICT E-Agriculture

“…In recent years, agricultural environmental monitoring initiatives have adopted a broad range of Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-based technologies such as the remote monitoring of farm conditions, and the remote control of farm equipment through smartphone applications [2][3][4][5][6][7]. Adil et al [3], Bartlett et al [4], and Yoshida et al [6] applied ICT-based techniques in irrigation systems to enhance irrigation system and agricultural water management system efficiencies. Bartlett et al [4] developed a smartphone application for users to access soil moisture deficit data and weather measurements through an online evapotranspiration-based irrigation scheduling tool.…”