Implementation of Basic Irrigation Postponement algorithm with rain water maximization on Lycopersicon Esculentum or Tomato Plant

In the year 2009, according to FAO, 88 percent of the total water withdrawal in the Philippines was used in Agriculture alone. Experts estimate that at least fifty percent of water used in agriculture is wasted due to overwatering. There are only a handful of studies in the Philippines that pertains to smart irrigation and most of these studies doesn't take rainfall amount inconsideration, leading to some of the crop's root drowning and overwatering. To aid the mentioned scenario, this study was conducted by the researches to be able to propose a modernized way of irrigation through automation and implementation of basic irrigation postponement algorithm. The study aims to create a smart Irrigation system using Raspberry pi with shell and python scripts with the addition of an irrigation postponement algorithm that maximizes rainfall water for tomato plant, Lycopersicon Esculentum. The proposed system is implemented on one planter in where two tomato seeds were planted and is compared to a planter with same amount of tomato seeds but grown in the traditional way. The Two-sample T-test was used to analyze the data gathered. Based on the results attained from the statistical treatment, the proposed system was able to minimize water consumption by 29.03 percent and it does not affect the plant growth observed via the number of branches.