An Approach of Reviving Papaya Production in Fiji using Renewable Energy Powered Optimised Smart Irrigation

Abstract

The Papaya industry is one of the biggest agro-trade industries in Fiji. It is however losing its popularity due to various factors of which energy and irrigation are crucial ones. A cost effective irrigation system integrated with Renewable energy would be the answer to support the papaya industry in Fiji. Farms are located in remote places where the grid connectivity is mostly unavailable for irrigation. Moreover a lot of water wastage occurs in the land during farming practices, due to traditional methods of irrigation, consequently increasing energy usages. The proposed idea will mainly focus on a solar powered irrigation system which will also give the farmers remote access to monitor the soil condition for the plant using sensor networks. The operation of the sensor networking system is based on feedback control algorithm. Crops can be irrigated once the water requirements arise from moisture sensors via microcontroller. Moisture sensor signals will be cross checked with the real time weather observation module signals to minimize the unnecessary watering of the crops at a cost effective manner called optimized irrigation. Optimized irrigation is one of the powerful sources to monitor uninterruptedly and habitually using renewable energy, smart and water management schemes to increase agro-production. This paper presents possible reasons for down growth of the papaya production in Fiji and proposes a method of reviving the production by using an optimized smart irrigation to conserve electricity and saving water resulting a reliable and efficient irrigation system for many Pacific Island Countries.