POST-HARVEST GRAINS MOISTURE DETECTION

AND HUMIDITY MONITORING SYSTEM

Group CS19-20/001

A Project Report submitted to the Faculty of Science, Department of Computer Science in

Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of Bsc. Degree in

Computer Science & Information Technology of Gulu University.

December, 2020
 DECLARATION

We, the undersigned hereby declare that this project Post-harvest grains moisture detection
and Humidity Monitoring System was designed, written and submitted by us in partial
fulfillment of the requirement for the Award of the Bachelor Degree in Computer Science and
Information Technology is our original work and has never been presented by anyone else to
Gulu University or any other academic institution for any award.

S/n Name Regno Sign

01 Emesu Jacob 18/U/3255/GIT/PS

02 Asuku Agatha 17/U/2219/GCS/PS

03 Olir Jeremiah 17/U/2176/GIT/PS

Group Members

i
 APPROVAL

This project report has been submitted for examination with approval of the following
supervisor

............................................ ..................................

Mrs. Aber Kevin Date

Department of Computer Science Gulu University.

ii
 DEDICATION

This work is dedicated to our dear parents for their continuous support in any way possible
and without them, we could not have made it this far, I dedicate this work also to Mr.
Benedict Dorri and Mrs. Elena Martinez who tirelessly help me financially to acquire this
education today may God blesses you and all our friends who were always there for us in
good and bad situations may God bless them and not forgetting all our course mates and our
dear lecturers who supervised and mentored us throughout the completion of this project
report and the entire course at large.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We attribute this work to the Almighty God for without him we believe we would have not been
able to come up with something like this. We also acknowledge the positive contribution of Mr.
Oyo Benedict for his guidance towards the project and all our friends for whom we consulted
during this work. I also acknowledge my sponsors Benedict Dorri, Elena Martinez who have
been a key financial providers to facilitate all my efforts to come up with a working system and
my lovely mother Dinah Alum for effort to send me to school. We there acknowledge all Faculty
of science, department of computer science Lecturers and students for all their positive help.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION..............................................................................................................................i
APPROVAL.....................................................................................................................................ii
DEDICATION................................................................................................................................iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT..............................................................................................................iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................................................v
LIST OF ACRONYMS..................................................................................................................vii
ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................................viii
CHAPTER 1.....................................................................................................................................1
Introduction..................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Background............................................................................................................................2
1.2 Problem Statement.................................................................................................................3
1.3 Main Objective.......................................................................................................................3
1.3.1 Specific Objectives..........................................................................................................3
1.3.2 Expected outcome...........................................................................................................4
1.4 Scope......................................................................................................................................4
1.4.1 System Scope..................................................................................................................4
1.4.2 Geographical Scope.........................................................................................................4
1.5 Justification............................................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 2.....................................................................................................................................6
Literature review..............................................................................................................................6
2.1 Historical perspectives...........................................................................................................6
2.2 Current Trends........................................................................................................................7
2.3 Related Systems.....................................................................................................................8
2.3.1 Automated Granary Monitoring and Controlling System...............................................8
2.3.2 Automated real time monitoring system for food grain storage.....................................8
2.4 Ugandan context.....................................................................................................................9
CHAPTER 3...................................................................................................................................11
Methodology..................................................................................................................................11
3.1 System Development Life Cycle..........................................................................................11
3.1.1 Planning.........................................................................................................................11

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 3.1.2 Data collection techniques.............................................................................................11
3.1.3 System design................................................................................................................12
3.1.4 System testing................................................................................................................13
3.1.5 System implementation.................................................................................................13
CHAPTER 4...................................................................................................................................14
System design and implementation................................................................................................14
4.1 System requirements............................................................................................................14
4.1.1 Functional requirements................................................................................................14
4.1.2 Non-functional requirements.........................................................................................14
4.2 System Design Specifications..............................................................................................15
4.2.1 System Context Diagram...............................................................................................15
4.2.1 System prototype design...............................................................................................15
CHAPTER 5...................................................................................................................................16
Presentation and discussion of results............................................................................................16
5.1 Experimental results.............................................................................................................16
5.2 Real time testing...................................................................................................................16
5.3 System setup.........................................................................................................................17
CHAPTER 6...................................................................................................................................18
Conclusion and Recommendations................................................................................................18
6.1 Conclusion............................................................................................................................18
6.2 Recommendations................................................................................................................18
REFERENCES...............................................................................................................................19

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 LIST OF ACRONYMS

LCD: Liquid crystal Display

DC: Direct current

AC: Alternating current

USB: Universal serial bus

PHL: Post-harvest losses

BC: Boost converter

PCU: Power condition unit

GSM: Global System for Mobile Communication

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 ABSTRACT

Moisture content of grain is one of the important parameters always considered when deciding
the quality and price of grain, at the stage of harvesting, storage, processing and marketing. Grain
having excess moisture content, if stored for long duration, will spoil due to insect/fungus
infestation. The types of Grains Meters available in the market with Look up tables, which cause
inconvenience when carrying out measurements. This system provide the moisture of grain but in
this system we got the problem, from which the moisture percentage commodities have to be
obtained due to which we get the less accuracy and it is somehow complicated. So to overcome
this problem we have developed Grain-harvest grains moisture detection and Humidity
Monitoring System which due to its novel design, eliminate this problem and gives moisture
level and humidity content level directly on a LCD display and send the information to the
farmer directly to his phone alerting him of the moisture level for the grains in the store so that
he can take action.

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 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

In Africa cereal grains are the important crops grown in most parts of the continent for food,
feed and income, (Asea. et al, 2014). Maize being one of the major food grain and other grain
crops regionally exported and it was considered to be a stepping-stone towards poverty
eradication (Private Sector Foundation Uganda, 2005) but due to high post-harvest losses, this
was not achieved. The maize sub-sector is estimated to provide a livelihood for about 3 million
Ugandan farm households, close to 1,000 traders and over 20 exporters (Ubos, 2011). The
regional maize production however is dominated by smallholder farmers whose production is
generally characterized by small farm acreage (0.5- 5 ha) (Maaif, 2013), low yields (1.0 -1.8
MT/ha) and high production costs and consequently low returns.

According to (FAO, 2012) food production will need to grow by 70% to feed world population
which will reach 9 billion by 2050. Consequently, there is a need for an integrated and
innovative approach to the global effort of ensuring sustainable food production, consumption
and handling post-harvest losses (Nellemann et al., 2009).

In some African, Caribbean and Pacific ACP countries, where tropical weather and poorly
developed infrastructure contribute to the problem, wastage can regularly be as high as 40-50%
(SPORE, 2011). Obviously, one of the major ways of strengthening food security is by
reducing these losses. Along the renewed focus on investment in agriculture that began in
2008, there is an increasing interest in effective technology for Post-Harvest Losses (PHL)
reduction.

The term “postharvest loss” - PHL refers to measurable quantitative and qualitative food loss in
the postharvest system (de Lucia and Assennato, 2014). This system comprises of
interconnected activities from the time of harvest through crop processing, marketing and food
preparation, to the final decision by the consumer to eat or discard the food.

Unfortunately, the quality standards of cereal grain produced in Uganda is generally low and a
lot is lost during the process of harvesting, transport, storage and processing. The postharvest
loss accounts for direct physical losses and quality losses that reduce the economic value of
crop, or may make it unsuitable for human consumption. In severe cases, these losses can be
up to 80% of the total production (Fox, 2013). In African countries, these losses have been

1
estimated to range between 20% and 40%, which is highly significant considering the low
agricultural productivity in several regions of Africa (Abass et al., 2014). According to the
World Bank report, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) alone loses food grains worth about USD 4
billion every year (Zorya et al., 2011). These losses play a critical role in influencing the life of
millions of smallholder farmers by impacting the available food volumes and trade-in values of
the commodities.

Considering the criticality of PHL reduction in enhancing the food security, it becomes very
important to know the pattern and scale of these losses across the world, especially in
developing countries, and identify its causes and possible solutions. Although losses occur at
each stage of the supply chain from production to consumer level, storage losses are
considered most critical in developing countries.

Therefore, a technology that enables safe cereal grains storage at intermediate moisture content
level (around 13%) is desirable.

1.1 Background

Uganda’s economy largely depends on the agricultural sector. According to De Lucia and
Assennato (2006), Agriculture contributes about 42% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of
which 80% of the monetary value is from food grains like Maize and coffee. Coffee is the
leading export crop and leading foreign exchange earner. In 2007, coffee contributed about
55% of the total export earnings. Coffee provides both direct and indirect employment to over
5milliom Ugandans (Calverley, 2010).

Currently to protect our grains from insect infestation, the traditional farmers in Uganda
exposes grains to heat treatment. Traditionally, farmers have exposed food grains like sorghum,
millet, maize to sunshine at various intervals after storage, and this has helped reduce losses
from mold and insects by lowering moisture content and by driving off some adult insects and
perhaps even killing some in the developmental stages. Sunning common beans is often
practiced in several parts of Uganda and Tanzania with a frequency of every 1–4 weeks
(Phaseolus, 2008).

Said and Pradhan (2014) found that during storage, significantly qualitative and quantitative
losses occur due to several factors, such as environmental factors (temperature, moisture
content of grains, pH, humidity), type of storage structure used, length and purpose of storage,
method of storing grains, and biological factors (insects, pests, microorganisms and rodents).

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Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state
of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for
precipitation, dew or fog to be present (Perkins etal., 2014).

The term moisture is associated with the presence of liquid, particularly water. The term may
also pertain to the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere.

In recent years, convention of storage techniques for grains has been advanced with the
innovations, such as aeration, refrigerated storage, modified atmospheric storage and hermetic
storage systems (H. Navarro & S. Navarro, 2016).

This paper therefore discusses a detail technology intervention, especially the use and
effectiveness of a post-harvest grains moisture detection and dryer system in reducing post-
harvest storage losses of cereal grains particularly for farmers and business holders in
developing countries.

1.2 Problem Statement

Post-harvest losses still remain a big challenge in Africa and Uganda inclusive. The African
farmers experiences high level of post-harvest losses of grains during the post-harvest session
regularly which is as high as 40%-50% (spore, 2011) which always occurs due to biological
factors such as molds and natural climatic conditions like high humidity that causes increase in
the moisture content level of food grains when stored.

Therefore, there is a need to develop an embedded system for food grain that can detect
moisture levels, monitor humidity and hence reducing the risks of post-harvest losses.

1.3 Main Objective

The study aimed to develop a post-harvest grains moisture detection and humidity monitoring
system.

1.3.1 Specific Objectives

(i) To study the current grains moisture detection systems being used.

(ii) To design the postharvest grains moisture detection and humidity monitoring system
based on the established requirements

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(iii) To implement a postharvest grains moisture detection and humidity monitoring system
that can be affordable by the rural farmers.

(iv) To test for the effectiveness of the postharvest grains moisture detection and humidity
monitoring system to meet the demands of the farmers.

1.3.2 Expected outcome

I. Reduction on the level of post-harvest loss of food grains.

II. Increase on the level of income per capital of farmers and business people since high
quality grains will be produced free of damage which will attract high prices.
III. Improvement on the social-economic wellbeing of people since more food grains will be
produced for home consumption and for sell.
IV. Improve food security and livelihood.
V. It will combat hunger in our communities.

1.4 Scope

1.4.1 System Scope

During the development of our grains moisture detection system, we shall use the sensors like
moisture sensor, humidity and temperature to help us collect the data from the surrounding
area and output for us the data gathered in real time. The LCD screen to display for us the
outputted results on the screen. When the moisture content in the grains goes beyond 13%
moisture level, the bulbs should to turn on automatically in order to generate heat for drying
the grains. The humidity sensor will senses the humidity level in the store, when the humidity
level goes to 35% beyond the normal level, the relay will turn on the bulb to generate heat to
help regulate the moisture in the air, the fun will be turn on automatically to suck out the moist
air in the room and maintain the humidity level at a constant normal level recommended for
grains to survives from fungus infestation and molds.

When the humidity level goes high(above 35%) and the moisture level of grains is also
high(above 13%) , the GSM (global system for mobile communication) will be able to send
you SMS message in real time to your phone indicating to you the moisture and humidity level
as the system performs the action to normalize the situation. This message is meant just to alert
the farmer.

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1.4.2 Geographical Scope

The study will focus on agricultural farmers rural areas who carry out large commercial farming
and business men in both rural and urban settings who buy their grain products during favorable
conditions (when prices are low) and stock them in their store to wait and sell when prices have
gone high or export to other nearby countries . The research will take a period of two months
during which activities like data collection and analysis will be carried out so as to define the
system requirements. In this time we shall be able to design the system and test all its
functionalities so that we ensure that all the specified features have been tackled and are working
effectively.

1.5 Justification

The reason why we came up with this system (post-harvest grains moisture detection and dryer
system) is to address the problem of post-harvest losses and food waste during storage. Since a
large population in Uganda deals in Agriculture, with 45% of the population carrying out
commercialized Agriculture (for sell) (FAO, 2012) So with the use of this system, both the
farmers and the business men will be able to keep their grains save from their stores and protect
them from damage caused by unfavorable climatic conditions like high moisture content, high
humidity that may make the grains to develop molds leading to low quality and quantity of
grains realized.

The proposed system will be able to sense, measure and report both grains moisture level, and
the humidity content level in store and display the results on the LCD screen for quick analysis.
When the moisture content is high, the system will automatically turn on the lights to provide
heat in order to provide the dry conditions for the grains, monitors the humidity content level and
send the SMS message alert to the farmer of the grains conditions in the store, including the
humidity level in form of a text.

The fun will be embed on the system that will also act as a regulator to sack out the warm moist
air and maintain the room humidity level for grains in the store.

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 CHAPTER 2

Literature review

Post-harvest loses still remain a big challenge in Africa and Uganda inclusive. Seeds when
stored in natural environment or ambient temperature respond readily to temperature, available
oxygen, and relative humidity. Metabolic activities, age, and longevity of seeds can be
manipulating by controlling the humidity temperature and oxygen (Mohammed, 2004).

Reduction of seed moisture content up to an appropriate limit is prerequisite for storage as seed
could be damaged because of desiccation. Seeds can be stored for a longer period due to lower
level of humidity.

According to the thumb rule, the life of the seed doubles by decreasing the moisture content to
1% in case if seed moisture content is between 5 and 14%. Higher moisture content is more
affected by higher temperature so seeds need to be stored in cool location. The life of the seed
doubles by decreasing the temperature to 5°C and is applicable between 0 and 50°C

2.1 Historical perspectives

Harvesting was the first step of postharvest and is the last step of crop production. The method
and condition of the harvest affect the further handling, processing, and storage of crops.
Premature harvest causes loss of quality of seeds, and due to high water content, they will
deteriorate in the store. Over mature crop harvest causes biological and physical losses of crops
by consistent wetting.

The traditional grain crops in Africa are millet and sorghum, and these grains are cultivated
throughout the some parts of Uganda.

Cereal grains like maize was introduced into Africa by Portuguese traders in the 15th century,
and for a long time it was grown as a vegetable crop; the cobs were picked and eaten while still
moist. The crop is an important component of the diet in some countries; in Kenya, Uganda
and Tanzania, for example, maize contributes about 34–36 percent of the daily caloric intake.

The recent commercial introduction of genetically modified white maize varieties with, for
example, resistance to herbicide has caused much policy debate (Hilbeck & Andow, 2004).

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Most farmers in Africa, both small and large, rely almost exclusively on natural drying of crops
from a combination of sunshine and movement of atmospheric air through the product, so
damp weather at harvest time can be a serious cause of postharvest losses—measured losses in
excess of 30 percent in Uganda (De Lima, 2010). Grains should be dried in such a manner that
damage to the grain is minimized and moisture levels are lower than those required to support
mold growth during storage (usually below 13–15 percent). This is necessary to prevent further
growth of a number of fungal species that may be present on fresh grains. To achieve this, new
technologies on postharvest storage handling if developed would be of more benefits to reduce
grains postharvest losses in Uganda.

2.2 Current Trends

Uganda’s economy largely depends on the agricultural sector. According to Ubos (2013)
Agriculture contributes about 42% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of which 80% of the
monetary value is from food grains like Maize and coffee. Coffee is the leading export crop
and leading foreign exchange earner. In 2007, coffee contributed about 55% of the total export
earnings. Coffee provides both direct and indirect employment to over 5milliom Ugandans
(World bank, 2014)

This therefore calls for focusing of attention from Government and development partners to the
development of new technologies to eradicate posh-harvest losses by farmers in Uganda and
reap more from this crops (UCTF, 2001).

Postharvest improvements can often be made through training and development of appropriate
skills and technologies in postharvest handling and management.

However, in humid producing regions, proper drying becomes a critical constraint to

postharvest improvements. So some new technologies have been developed to curb this
problem. A grain dryer incorporating a solar air-dryer and a photovoltaic power-assisted fan
has been designed in Malawi to dry maize (Gummert, 2010). The dryer can dry 90 kg of maize
grain per batch and is considered cost effective, with a payback period of less than one year if
surplus grain is dried and sold in the market. It is not clear whether there has been any uptake
of this device.

Currently to protect our grains from insect infestation, the traditional farmers in Uganda
exposes grains to heat treatment. Traditionally, farmers have exposed food grains like
sorghum, millet, maize to sunshine at various intervals after storage, and this has helped reduce

8
losses from mold and insects by lowering moisture content and by driving off some adult
insects and perhaps even killing some in the developmental stages. Sunning common beans
(Phaseolus, 2008) is often practiced in several parts of Uganda and Tanzania with a frequency
of every 1–4 weeks; it is usually combined with other types of treatment such as admixture of
botanicals, ash, or even soil (Giga et al., 2010). Such treatments would be expected to be
effective for grains, but the larger quantities involved may impose excessive labor
requirements.

The grains are stored in gunny or woven polypropylene bags in traditional warehouses,
whereas silos for bulk storage, seeds elevator, and flat storage structure are used in developed
countries (McFarlane and Kennedy, 2010). Bag storage is a laborious and costly process and
has greater chance of seed spillage and biological losses. There may be water seepage and
humidity problem due to inappropriate flooring of warehouses. Bags do not need any
fumigation facilities or aeration system. In developing countries, the system will be
uneconomical due to small farm size and cheaper manual labor.

2.3 Related Systems

2.3.1 Automated Granary Monitoring and Controlling System

The developed Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) consists of four nodes with each node having a
climatic sensor, a motion detector, and a microcontroller unit. Taking into consideration that most
of the storage structures are not very large, the grain storage facility was divided into four equal
zones and each sensor node is assigned to one zone. The fourth sensor node is integrated with an
additional GSM module for establishing a communication link through short message services
(Belay et al., 2019). The system provides round the clock monitoring of the grain storage house
while at the same time generating live data updates on a web page. The aeration system was
designed to effectively regulate the microclimatic state of the granary. The system is scalable and
can easily be adapted for use in most grain storage facilities. The system is expensive.

2.3.2 Automated real time monitoring system for food grain storage

The sensors collect the information from the environment, the collected signals through the
analog to digital conversions. These conversions are sent to ARDUINO unit. This ARDUINO
unit is connected to temperature and humidity sensors and using GSM to achieve the
system’s remote control. It greatly improves the flexibility and scalability of the warehouse
management which sends available data to grain depot manager in time and filters invalid

9
 data on the spot. The GSM modems are used to complete acquisition and transmission of
environment parameters over the network to achieve the system’s remote control and using
ARDUINO to achieve precise control of the Granary environment as system data controller
( Sheeba et al., 2018).

2.4 Ugandan context

In Uganda, the Agricultural sector employs about 72% of the population with the large
population based in rural areas and consequently contributing to a meagre 23% of GDP (Ubos,
2017). Post-harvest loss in Uganda according to Aphlis (2017) currently stands at 17.6% for
maize, 12.4% for millet and 13.5% for rice.

However this rapid loss are majorly due to unsuitable weather conditions as a result of climate
change in seasons leading to cloudier, sunny or rainy conditions therefore increasing post-
harvest losses (world bank, 2017).

The majority of the farmers in Uganda dry their grains (Maize) on bare ground and lack
appropriate facilities to establish whether the grains has attained the recommended moisture
content for storage (Kaaya & Kyamuhangire, 2006). This leaves their grains at risk since when
packed in the store since the grain moisture content may not be measured whether the grains
are well dried due to lack of moisture content measuring systems and automated dryers to be
used and all this make the grains susceptible to moulds and fungus affecting grains.

Though most farmers in Uganda, both small and large, rely mostly on natural drying of crops
from a combination of Sunshine and movement of atmospheric air, the damp weather at
harvest and after harvest time is a serious cause of post-harvest losses (De Lima, 2008).

Other innovators are exploring some technologies like the solar dying methods and use of
plastic sheeting, and wire mesh (Kaaya et al., 2010), but some of them are expensive and are in
limited use. Good drying would reduce microbial activity, especially of molds that may
produce Mycotoxin (such as aflatoxin) (Cta & Eagc, 2013).

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 CHAPTER 3

Methodology

This study will adopt system development life cycle (SDLC) approach. SDLC is important
because of its seven phases that support requirement selection through to the implementation
and maintenance of the system which align with the project objectives.

3.1 System Development Life Cycle

System Development Life cycle (SDLC) is a conceptual model which includes policies and
procedures for developing or altering systems throughout their life cycles.

This research will adopt the system development life cycle methodology. This will basically be
waterfall method which includes the following phases; planning analysis, design, development,
integration, testing, implementation and maintenance.

The reasons behind choosing the waterfall method include: early error detection, ensure greater
project output, amount of resources required for this model is lower than other models, ensure
project deadline control, requirement specification document serve as a guideline for
development and testing phase and starting and ending point is defined.

3.1.1 Planning

This is the first phase in the system development process. It identifies whether or not there is the
need for a new system to achieve a business strategy objective. This is a preliminary plan (or a
feasibility study) for a company’s business initiative to acquire the resources infrastructure, to
modify or improve

3.1.2 Data collection techniques

Data collection is very vital in our research study as it is to help us gather user requirement and
also know resources which the existing systems have, this will guide us through the
development process.

The following data collection techniques will be used in this research study: This involved
collecting information about the study.

3.1.2.1 Document Review

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This will be the secondary data review whereby information will be sort from sources like
journals, books, book chapters and conference proceedings. These will equip us with the
knowledge about the existing related systems and the state-of-art for the post-harvest grains
moisture detection system which may be integrated within our system.

3.1.2.2 Interview

To study and understand the current way of controlling grains wastage in a store, unstructured
interviews were carried to gain more information into it. This involved interviewing some of
the farmers about the current methods used to preserve grains in the stores.

This method allowed us to gather information and the difficulties and challenges that farmers face
as a result of poor storage conditions in the store.

3.1.2.3 Focused group discussion

At this stage we had a joint discussion with some of the few selected farmers and some few
produce dealers on the cause of post-harvest losses during storage and the current mechanism
they are using to cab the problem, where they were able to tell us that weather conditions like
much rains during the rainy season always damages their grains since it will be cloudy all the
times and there will be no sun to dry the grains making the grains to develop molds and change
in their color and they were able to tell us that they normally use the local methods of sun
drying taking the grains outside every day for drying when the sun is out though its tiresome
for them and they couldn’t use other methods like the radial drying bin systems since they are
expensive for them to afford.

3.1.3 System design

This phase describes the detail, the necessary specifications, features and operations that will
satisfy the functional requirement of the proposed system which will be in place. This is the
step for end users to discuss and determine their specific business information needs for the
proposed system. It’s during this phase that they will consider the essential components
structure, processing and procedures for the system to accomplish its objectives.

3.1.3.1 System context diagram

This section describes the theoretical process perform which the system is build. It can be the
logical or the architectural design of the system that facilitates the creation of the part, the
navigation and streamlining of the system architecture.

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3.1.4 System testing

This stage in system development life cycle brings all the pieces together into a special testing
environment error checking. We used unit and system testing methods that involved testing
each component of the system and the entire system respectively to ensure that there is
maximum flow of power supply in the whole system components to facilitate the efficient
operation of the system.

3.1.5 System implementation

At this level, a fully developed working system would be put in place for trial to test its working
capability and the functionality of the different parts of the system being developed. It will be
tried by the proposed users who were able to give the factual data for the system development.

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 CHAPTER 4

System design and implementation

This stage is the final in the initial development of the system in system development life
cycle. Here the system is put to commercial use and runs in actual business. This is a stage
where our research objectives was achieved.

4.1 System requirements

It explains all the requirements needed for system development.

4.1.1 Functional requirements

These requirements specify the given inputs, validation conditions on inputs, operations
equations or logical operations that must be used to transform inputs into outputs. In addition,
some abnormal input, system behavior for invalidity. So the functional requirements of this
system include:

It should be in position to detect and read the moisture content of grains stored, the humidity
level in the store display the results in the LCD screen and perform the automatic regulation of
the condition in case it goes abnormal.

It should be able to send the message alert to the farmer concerning the grains condition in the
store, alerting the farmer about the moisture content level of grains in the store and the
humidity level.

It should be able to turn on the bulbs automatically incase the moisture content of the crops in the
store goes high in order to provide the dryer conditions.

The fun should be able to turn on automatically when the humidity content goes high in order to
sack out the warm moist air from the store and regulate the humidity level to normal.

4.1.2 Non-functional requirements

This step explains boundary conditions or externalities to the system under construction which
will affect the performance involve or capabilities of the system once it’s on operation. This may
include the following.

It should compliance with the federal and state laws and regulations.

15
It should have high degree of safety standards, timing constraints, and quality or uptime
properties.

4.2 System Design Specifications

This section deals with the logic of the system that facilitates the creation of the path in the
navigation and streamlining of the data manipulation. It’s also the theoretical basis upon which
the system is built.

4.2.1 System Context Diagram

Figure 4.2.1

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4.2.1 System prototype design

Figure 4.2.2

CHAPTER 5

Presentation and discussion of results

Post-harvest grains moisture detection and humidity monitoring system is an embedded system
comprising of humidity sensors and moisture sensors embedded with Arduino UNO process the
signal, sending signals to the Arduino UNO board which also transmits the signals to the Buzzers
and to the GSM module hence notifying the farmer about the grains moisture level and the
humidity level in the store through short message service (SMS) alert and sound alert. However,
this design is primarily focused on low power consumption, small size, light wait and easy
manipulation.

5.1 Experimental results

Moisture level and humidity level detection sensors: In this system, the moisture content level
and humidity level in the store is detected, once the moisture content level in the grain goes
above 13% which is the relative humidity, the system will turn on automatically through the relay
to turn on the bulbs to provide heat source to regulate the moisture level. The relative moisture
content level for the well dry grains that was detected was 13% and the relative humidity
detected was 50% though this results keeps on fluctuating depending on the weather conditions
of that day which the system works upon.

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5.2 Real time testing

During this evaluation, the complete of post-harvest grain moisture detection and humidity
monitoring system was tested and evaluated by wet and dry grains. Two states of grains was
taken to test the system performance and its reliability i.e wet and dry grains.

5.3 System setup

Figure 5.1

18
 CHAPTER 6

Conclusion and Recommendations

This report is brief and summarizes all the details associated with the project and how it will be
implemented covering the objectives, impacts as well as the materials used to ensure the project
is successfully interesting to any potential reader. The most important point to note about the
project is that post-harvest grains moisture detection and humidity monitoring system is
primarily designed to track on the moisture content level of the grains and the humidity level in
the store through the use of the moisture sensors and humidity sensors and alerts the farmer of
the grains conditions. This project will positively impact the lives of the farmers and business
people this will be achieved through partnerships with variety of organizations like FAO Uganda,
ministry of Agriculture and Animal husbandry. Resources needed to implement the system
impact will be through presentations to attract funding in order to produce multiple systems.

6.1 Conclusion

Post-harvest grains moisture detection and monitoring system is presented. It looks at the features
and architecture for the analysis, the design, and the implementation of the post-harvest grains
moisture detection and humidity monitoring system. Developers concluded that the architecture
and the design are working well; the presented system saves the farmers from post-harvest loss
during the post-harvest session. In the future more computer based grains moisture detection and
humidity monitoring systems could be implemented and also a more reliable sensors system
could be implemented. The authors also do conclude that the system can meet the user
requirement.

6.2 Recommendations

We further recommend the utilization of the embedded systems technology using the Arduino
UNO kits to transform the livelihood of our society. These can be programmed and directed to a
specific objectives. Conclusively we appeal to any personality or group that provide audience to
this report to positively comply and support the further implementation of the project that is
financially as well as ideologically.

Post-harvest grains moisture detection and monitoring system is presented and the researchers
do recommend that further enhancements in its functionality using modern technologies can be
made in the near future by subsequent developers.

19
 REFERENCES

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Res. 2014, 57, 49–57

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 Logic Controller.” AKU J. Sci. 11: 1-14. (in Turkish).

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on-farm level of operation. In: Teter, N.C., Frio, A.S. (Eds.), Progress in Grain Protection.
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23. Sinha, R.N., 2009. The stored-grain ecosystem. In: Jayas, D.S., White, N.D., Muir, W.E.

(Eds.), Stored Grain Ecosystems. Marcel Dekker, New York, pp. 1–32.

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APPEDIX 1: Samples Codes Used

/********

#include<SoftwareSerial.h>

#include<String.h>

SoftwareSerial gsm(13,11);

#include <dht.h>

dht DHT;

#define DHT11_PIN 10

#include <LiquidCrystal.h>

int relay=12;

int buzzer= 6;

int sensorPin=A0;

int sensorvalue = 0;

23
int humidityfan=9;

LiquidCrystal lcd(16,15, 5, 4, 3, 2);

void setup(){

Serial.begin(9600);

pinMode(buzzer,OUTPUT);

pinMode(relay,OUTPUT);

pinMode(sensorPin, INPUT);

pinMode(humidityfan,OUTPUT);

gsm.begin(9600);

void sendMessage()

Serial.println("sending text ...");

gsm.print("AT+CMGF=1\r");

delay(100);

gsm.print("AT+CMGS=\"+256775099890\"\r");

delay(200);

gsm.print("room humidity=");

gsm.print(DHT.humidity);// Humidity level

gsm.println("the grain moisture level=");

gsm.print(sensorvalue);//moisture level

gsm.print("\r");

24
 delay(500);

gsm.print((char)26);

delay(100);

Serial.println("Text sent.");

delay(500);

void loop(){

sensorvalue=analogRead(sensorPin);

//sensorvalue=min(sensorvalue,2);

Serial.print ("sensorvalue = ");

Serial.println (sensorvalue);

int chk = DHT.read11(DHT11_PIN);

Serial.print("Temperature = ");

Serial.println(DHT.temperature);

Serial.print("Humidity = ");

Serial.println(DHT.humidity);

delay(1000);

if(DHT.humidity>=0)

{lcd.begin(16, 2);

//moisture

25
 if(sensorvalue>100)

{lcd.print("moisture excess " );

else

lcd.print("moisture is " );

lcd.print(sensorvalue );

lcd.print("%" );

lcd.setCursor(0,1);

lcd.print("humidity= " );

lcd.print(DHT.humidity);

lcd.print("%");

if(DHT.humidity>=50)

sendMessage();

//digitalWrite(relay,HIGH);

digitalWrite(buzzer,HIGH);

delay(1000);

digitalWrite(buzzer,LOW);

26
//delay(60000);

else if (DHT.humidity<50)

digitalWrite(buzzer,LOW);

//digitalWrite(relay,LOW);

if(sensorvalue>=13){

digitalWrite(relay,HIGH);

digitalWrite(humidityfan,HIGH);

else

digitalWrite(relay,LOW);

digitalWrite(humidityfan,LOW);

if(DHT.humidity>=50)

digitalWrite(relay,HIGH);

else

27
 {

digitalWrite(relay,HIGH);

28