DEVELOPMENT OF MOBILE APPLICATION BASED AUTOMATED IRRIGATION SYSTEM

Abstract

Agriculture constitutes the largest sector of Pakistan's Economy. Yet, per acre production is among the lowest as compared to other countries. The primarily reason is outdated irrigation practices. In addition, traditional methods such as flood irrigation system use excessive volumes of water which is far more than required quantity. This not only results in loss of value-added water but also decreases productivity. Modem High Efficiency Irrigation Systems (HEIS) can increase yield considerably by utilizing even lesser amounts of water. They can reduce labor for watering and thus, reduce cost required for crops to grow. Modem HEIS can be operated through mobile application which makes it more beneficial and useful to implement in farms. But there is no such mobile application based irrigation system available in Pakistan. Our proposed system consists of a mobile application which can interact with a field device in order to monitor and control water application at the farms. Live data from farms which includes soil moisture, humidity temperature, and volume of applied water can be monitored through mobile application. Also, water application in the field can be controlled through mobile application, as the mobile application can operate solenoid valves installed in the field which is used to control the flow of water. This can further increase efficiency of High Efficiency Irrigation System as watering can be scheduled and applied according to need of plant. This proposed system will reduce the workload on farmer as he can have access to his fields from any remote place without being physically present over there. It will reduce the cost required for installation of modem irrigation systems as compared to imported such systems. The ease to the farmers will propel them to adopt drip or sprinkler irrigation system. It will assist in changing traditional mindset and alleviate mal irrigation practices. Thus, help in saving significant amount of water.