Design and implementation of internet of things (IoT) based scheme for testing loamy soil

Abstract

Soil plays a vital role in crop production. It is therefore essential for farmers to have handy information on the quality of the soil to be cultivated. In Nigeria and many third world countries, traditional method that is based on subjective evaluation is used, where farmers utilize their past experience to adjudge the quality of the soil. This approach is ineffective and time consuming. This work presents Internet of Things (IoT) based scheme that provides farmers with real time data or information on the quality of the soil. The scheme includes IoT device that consists of NPK sensor, Dallas temperature sensor, NodeMCU (ESP8266) and capacitive soil sensor which are utilized to collect data on nutrient, moisture and temperature of the soil. These data are sent to a mobile application that is developed using DART programming language and Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). The performance of the IoT scheme is assessed through field experiment where loamy soil samples taken from Agricultural Engineering garden, Electrical Engineering garden and open football school field of College of Engineering and Environmental Studies, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ibogun, Ogun State are used as candidates for testing. The results of the experiment reveal that the soil sample taken from Agricultural Engineering garden retains water (80%) better than other soil samples and has the highest mineral (Nitrogen, 39mg/Kg and Phosphorous, 16mg/Kg) composition. Its potassium content (14mg/Kg) is however at par with sample taken from the school field. In addition, it is observed that soil sample from the school field has higher temperature (26.63 oC) than others. It is seen that the IoT scheme functions satisfactorily and demonstrates ability to test soil in a bid to help farmers in making right decision concerning optimal application of fertilizer for higher agricultural output.

Keywords

• agriculture
• internet of things
• microcontroller
• mobile application
• moisture content

Supporting Institution

The authors receive no funding for the research from any known funding organization

Ethical Statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest

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