Design and Development of an IoT Based Smart Irrigation and Fertilization System for Chilli Farming

Abstract

India is an agricultural country and 70% of the people directly or indirectly depends on agriculture for their living. Nowadays, water scarcity is one of the main challenges faced by the farmers. Another major challenge faced by Indian agriculture sector is the increase in rate of farmers suicide because of debt. So, effective measures have to be devised in order to reduce the cost of farming and increase the yield from agriculture. This research work proposes the design of a generic IoT framework for improving agriculture yield by effectively scheduling irrigation and fertilization based on the crops current requirements, environmental conditions and weather forecasts. This work proposes the design of an affordable irrigation and fertilization system. The proposed fertilization system spreads fertilizers to the root directly. This reduces the amount of fertilizers required and thus reduces the cost and improves the soil health. A user friendly mobile application has been designed to deliver this information to the farmers in their regional language. The generic framework has been validated using a case study for chilli farming.