SMART AGRICULTURE USING IOT

Kanumuri Dinesh Varma

IOT with Cyber Security
Bournemouth University
Bournemouth England
s5229409@bournemouth.ac.uk

Abstract— Agriculture industry is developed a lot with the help of technology, it became data-centered and smarter. The
rapid growth of Internet of Things based technologies reshaped many industries including agriculture. Such a radical
change dismantles existing farming practices and creates new opportunities along with some challenges. In this article the
possibility of wireless sensors and IoT in agriculture is highlighted, In addition some challenges are expected to be tackled
while integrating this technique with the traditional methods of farming. The IoT devices and techniques used in
agriculture applications are explained in detail. Based on this article, we recognise recent trends of IoT in agriculture.
Keywords— Internet of things(IoTs), smart agriculture, sensors, farm lands, irrigation.

I. INTRODUCTION
Internet of Things is the group of devices with software, sensors, and networking that enables the communication and sharing of
data between the objects. The benefits which farmers are obtaining by adapting the IoT program are innumerable. It has helped
farmers to reduce costs and increase crop yields.
One of the major purpose of the irrigation system is to provide and maintain the ideal environment in terms of temperature and
soil moisture for the optimum growth of crops. With the usage of smartphones and computers, users can access the data stored in
the cloud. User can keep track on the crops and able to control the water, pumps and fans in the control panel of the user interface.
The primary aim of smart irrigation system is to provide and maintain the optimum conditions for the crops. Through cultivating
in an environment with sufficient water supply and ideal temperature, growth of plants can be improved and thus the productivity
of the agriculture field will increase as well. By using this technology, we can increase productivity and can feed more people in
future.
IoT transforms the agriculture industry with the advancements and helps farmers to contend with their challenges. The issues can
be addressed by the innovative applications and therefore, production of the crop, sustainability and cost effectiveness will be
increased.[ CITATION muh \l 16393 ]
Figure 1: General Hierarchy of Applications, Services and Sensors for Smart farming.[ CITATION Muh19 \l 16393 ]

II. HARDWARE REQUIREMENT

1.THE ARDUINO UNO

The Arduino Uno is a microcontroller card that supports the ATmega328. All sensors are integrated into the Arduino Uno. These
sensors provide information about the ambient conditions for the Arduino Uno. Arduino Uno makes the necessary decisions /
actions and uses cloud computing to inform farmers about sensor readings and necessary actions. And also send them a message
with the help of GSM.[ CITATION SVS18 \l 16393 ]

2.SOIL MOISTURE SENSOR

It detects soil moisture. The sensor has both analog and digital output input and operates according to the principle of open short
circuit. The LED output indicates more or less the output in this system. When the ground is dry, the electricity stops
flowing and acts as an open circuit. If the ground is wet, the current passes and the circuit is short and the output is zero. Sensor
information is indicated by levels. It is corrosion resistant so the sensor has a long time to handle the cost of the farmer
at minimal cost.[ CITATION SVS18 \l 16393 ]

3.TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY SENSOR

It is used to measure temperature and humidity. This system displays information about how well it worked. Suppose the
threshold is exceeded, the LED starts flashing and the values are immediately displayed on the web page and the farmer can check
them.

4.ACOUSTIC SENSORS

These offers various uses in managing the farms, which includes cultivation of soil, weeding and harvesting. Major advantage of
using this sensor is its quick response and low cost, mainly while making an allowance for portable equipment. These type of
sensors work by measuring the alterations in the noise. These sensors are mainly used for monitoring of pests and its detection,
variety of seeds are classified as well by using these sensors. [ CITATION Vic10 \l 16393 ][ CITATION Qin17 \l
16393 ]

5.OPTICAL SENSORS

Optical sensors use a phenomena called light reflectance, which measures the organic substances in soil, moisture, minerals,
colour and composition, etc. Ability of soil to reflect light depends upon the various parts of the electromagnetic spectrum are
tested by these sensors. Variation in the soil density are indicated by the alteration occurred in the reflection of waves.

III. APPLICATIONS
The fundamental change in all aspects of practices of farming is possible by implementing the latest sensors and IoT techniques in
agricultural methods. Now, the seamless integration of wireless sensors and the Internet of Things in smart farming can take
farming to unimaginable levels. By following smart farming methods, the internet can help improve solutions to many traditional
agricultural problems such as yield optimization, drought response, soil aptitude, irrigation and pest control. Figure 3 shows the
hierarchy of key applications, services and wireless sensors being used for smart farming applications. The following are
important cases where advanced techniques at different stages help improve overall efficiency.[ CITATION Muh19 \l 16393 ]

1.SOIL SAMPLING AND MAPPING

Examination of soil is very crucial to extract field specific information, which is useful while making decisions at certain stages.
Main objective of analysing soil is to check the nutrient status of the farm land, so particular measures are taken depends on the
deficiency of the field. Some factors that’s helps us to analyse soil nutrients includes type of soil, history of crop, fertilizers,
irrigation level, etc. There are many manufacturers who are providing sensors and tools which helps in soil testing, these kits
assist farmers to know the quality of the soil. Depends on the data provided, remedies can be taken to increase the growth of the
crop.
Drought is one of the main concern for the limitation of crop yield productivity. This issue can be resolved by using remote
sensors are used to get the soil moisture data frequently to their mobile as a SMS alert and e-mail alert or check in the webpage.
Depends on the data received we can allow the water pump to flow, when it reaches the certain range we will get the alert, so that
we can stop the water. [ CITATION Muh19 \l 16393 ]

2.IRRIGATION

There are several irrigation methods, such as drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation, could handle the issues like water wastage,
which were also found in traditional methods like flood irrigation and furrow irrigation. water shortage can affect the crops quality
and quantity and leads to the deficiency of the soil nutrients and develops infections which are harmful to the plants. Estimating
water needed for the crops is very hard, it involves factors such as method of irrigation, type of crop, soil type and moisture level
in the soil. Taking this into consideration, wireless sensors are used by the soil and moisture control system it helps the crop to use
the water optimally and results in better crop health. IoT techniques are used to better the crop efficiency, some of the techniques
are crop water stress index irrigation management. Wireless field sensors are installed to measure the conditions and transmit the
data. (There are other data such as weather information and satellite imaging is used to calculate crop water stress index(CWSI),
this increases the efficiency of water usage.

3.FERTILIZERS
Smart farming uses fertilization which helps in the estimation of nutrients dosage requisition, due to this, negative effect on the
environment will be reduced. With the use of smart agriculture dosage of nutrients is estimated, ultimately reduces their negative
impact on the environment. The requirements for fertilization are type of soil, crop variety and absorption capacity, yield, fertility
type and weather, etc. satellite images help us to know the status of crop nutrients, we can easily asses the level of soil nutrients,
these can further increase the efficiency of the fertilizer. Accuracy of GPS, autonomous vehicles are advantageous to smart
fertilization. IoT based devices, smart robots and drones are used to detect the pests and control them by sprinkling pesticides.

IV. ADVANCED PRACTICES IN AGRICULTURE

Previously, the quality of the seed and fertilizers are factors which are taken into consideration for enhancing the crop production.
But these conventional methods are not enough to suit the demand. There are some alternatives introduced by scientists such as
bioengineered and genetically modified foods, which are produced by inducing changes into their DNA by implementing the
genetic engineering approaches. very few technologies reach the public acceptance, because people incline towards organic food.
There has been research conducted for years in which technologies like IoT are used to increase the conservative agriculture
methods. The role of latest technology is vital in improving urban farming.

1.GREENHOUSE FARMING

It is considered as one of the method of smart agriculture. However, growing crops in the controlled environment is not a new
idea, as it has roots from 19 th century. But this kind of setup is used in countries which experience drastic changes in climatic
conditions. The day’s crops grow in indoors are not much affected by varied environmental conditions and also we can grow any
kind of crops. In these times the support of sensors and other devices are important for communication. There are some factors
which can influence the crops production such as ventilation system, monitoring and wind control, etc. In modern greenhouse
farming, the monitoring of environment is the major task. Where we have to check the different measuring points which control
the indoor climate. [ CITATION Ram18 \l 16393 ]

2.VERTICAL FARMING

In order to the increased food demands, there is more need of farming lands. But due to pollution and soil erosion lot of land loss
is caused. Because of the recent farming methods based on industrial farming, the quality of soil is affected. Taking the arable
land problems into consideration there would be huge loss for food production in coming days. For farming fresh water is
required, this can increase burden on water reservoirs which are very limited. These challenges can overcome by using vertical
farming. This method of cultivation is more likely used in urban agriculture to grow crops in controlled environment. By using
this form of farming, we can save resources. Parameters which are important in this kind of farming are
Carbon dioxide measurements, we use NDIR (non-dispersive infrared) sensors to control the climatic conditions in vertical
farming. Gasbox sensors are used to ensure the ideal growth of plants by allowing certain conditions. Pseudo dual beam NDIR
measurement is employed for the stability enhancement and optical complexity reduction. In the IoT connected farm, touching the
crops with hands at each stage is not required to see the growth. Various vertical farming applications uses mint controls for
solving problems like wastage and sensors.[ CITATION AZO18 \l 16393 ]

V. TECHNOLOGY
Technology used for smart farming are vehicles which are equipped by GPS trackers and wireless sensors which are deployed in
the fields to check the moisture and other parameters. Robots helps farmers by watering, planting, picking and fertilizing.
Acoustic sensors are used for monitoring and control of pests and differentiating the variety of seeds.

1.DATA BASE

All the crop data is saved in the data base securely, whenever required, user can access the data.
Cellular communication: It is used to get the updates from the field, depends on the bandwidth and other factors user can receive
updates. Cost of this communication is low, using satellites for transmitting the data is another way of communication, it is costly
for small farmers.

2. ZIGBEE
It is used in the small range to communicate. Depends on the applications it uses network topologies like star. Depends on the
distance from farm land to the user GSM or Bluetooth can be used.[ CITATION Muh19 \l 16393 ]

3.BLUETOOTH

This communication is wireless and operates at a shorter range from device to device. Due to its benefits such as low power
consumption and low cost it is most preferable option to use. It can communicate data like various parameter readings. It is
available in any smart phone, unlike WiFi, which requires LAN connection to operate. However, WiFi can be used in large farms
to operate, because lot of devices are connected, so it is easy to operate. Depends on the size of the farm land technology changes.
[ CITATION Mar \l 16393 ][ CITATION Mar \l 16393 ]

Figure 2. Communication in smart farming.[ CITATION Muh19 \l 16393 ]

VI. COMMUNICATION
The data should be updated timely, reporting the information at regular intervals is very crucial in smart agriculture. In order to
achieve
reliability of communication, telecom network operators play a vital role. The choice of communication varies depends on the
applications used in the farms. Wireless devices are used such as Bluetooth to connect peer to peer and shares data. Wi-Fi is used
when using in short range of distance to connect devices and share data to the server from where we can access the information
and check the details whenever we want refer. Smart phones are used to monitor the crop conditions, it is easily accessible by
anyone, all the smart phones have inbuilt GPS which allows farmers to know the location. [ CITATION Muh19 \l 16393 ]

VII. ARGUMENTS
The smart agriculture results in better yield crop and reduces the wastage of water and resources which are used for the farming.
According to the weather conditions the technology helps to improve the crop condition and controls the moisture and
temperature level of the crops.

The author Muhammad Ayaz mentioned all the technologies that helps the smart farming but not explained much about security
of the data and how to back up the data for future purpose.
Svsembedded used sms alert message when the parameters are less than required in the field, which is very simple to implement
to know the condition of water level. It is not mentioned in author Muhammad Ayaz paper

According to my view the technology should be tackled very carefully, data base where all the information regarding crop is
stored might get crashed due to lack of security. Complexity will be increased in case of large fields, when it comes to practical
 farming a small setting in the device which is used for fertilization can damage the crop because of the wrong amount of
pesticides slashing.

VIII.ADVANTAGES
1. large farms can be covered by a limited number of farmers.
2. It is time saving, monitoring and providing the conditions which are required for plants is easy by this process.
3. There are some issues in the conventional farming, which could be overcome by this process. 
Right amount of water is supplied to plants through the irrigation system as excessive watering may damage the plant's growth,
however, rainfall water might not be sufficient for the plants.
4. Depends on the moisture and temperature data received by the cloud, we can balance the parameters to the required levels by
using fan’s and pump’s.
5. Easy to monitor the moisture and temperature levels by getting the alerts from the sensors readings. It is operated automatically
by using temperature and humidity sensors. When the soil is dry automatically the water motor will pump water to field. When
the soil is too wet we will receive the alert that soil is wet and we proceed with the further action.[ CITATION SVS18 \l 16393 ]

IX. DISADVANTAGES
1. There could be a wrong analysis of weather conditions.
2. Devices are to be altered according to the farmers, it will involve equipment which will be expensive.
3. If there are faulty data processing equipment or sensors, then it will lead to a situation where the decisions are taken wrong.
[ CITATION muh \l 16393 ]

X. CONCLUSION
These days’ food demand is increased due the population, so the way of farming is very important to reach the demand of public.
Focusing on smarter and efficient way of cultivation is crucial. The improvement of new practices of increasing crop yield and
handling, recently youth are inclining towards agriculture and choosing it as a profession. Technology like IoT helps them to
simplified way of cultivation and monitoring crops by accessing the information using mobiles and internet. Taking these factors
into consideration, this paper highlights the major role of technologies, mainly IoT, which makes the farming smarter to meet the
expectations in future. We use wireless sensors, cloud, Bluetooth and other devices as discussed earlier. Various farming methods
and how effective they work to save the resources are explained. In conclusion, monitoring the farm land is very important, for
better cultivation and less wastage of resources IoT technology is necessary.

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