SWARM: Sensor driven Water and Agricultural Resources Management

Abstract

Efficiently managing the use of water and fertilizers has always been a major concern in agricultural practices. The scarcity of fresh water has been one of the motivating factors in developing efficient irrigation systems. Apart from the environmental concern in water management, it facilitates better growth of the crops. Fertilizers in low quantities can considerably retard crop growth and hence affect production. Synthetic fertilizers in high quantities pollute the soil and render ground water unsuitable for consumption. Measuring the nutrient availability in real time and properly delivering the right amount of the nutrients at the appropriate time can be immensely useful. The primary objective of SWARM is to remotely monitor the water and nutrient availability and deliver the corresponding resources dynamically in accordance with the data collected. The SWARM system was implemented at a farm measuring 250 ft times 80 ft in Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh, India. Groundnut is being cultivated in the farm. It was tested for a period of around one and a half months and results have been provided. The system has shown promising results when compared to manually supplying water and fertilizers. The SWARM software was written in the Javatrade programming language