Proceedings of the International Conference on Electronics and Sustainable Communication Systems (ICESC 2020)

IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP20V66-ART; ISBN: 978-1-7281-4108-4

IoT based Smart System for Enhanced

Irrigation in Agriculture
Bhanu K.N. 1, M ahadevaswamy H.S.2, Jasmine H.J.3
Department of Computer Science, Amrita School of Arts & Sciences, M ysuru
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India
E-mail: knbhanu@asas.mysore.amrita.edu 1, girishhs231@gmail.com 2, jasminehj02@gmail.com 3

Abstract — Internet of Things (IoT) is an interconnection
of devices that can transfer information over the internet and
to control operations without human interference. Agriculture
provides a rich source of parameters for data analysis which
helps in better yielding of crops. The usage of IoT devices in
agriculture helps in the modernizing of information and
communication in smart farming. The key parameters that can
be considered for better growth of crops are soil types, soil
moisture), mineral nutrients, temperature, light, oxygen and so
on. Various sensors have been used to sense these parameters
and communicate the same to the cloud. This paper considers a
few of these parameters for data analysis that helps in
proposing the users to take better agricultural decisions using
IoT. The proposed system performed better and is
implemented atThingS peak IoT cloud platform.
Keywords— Internet of Things (IoT), Aurdino Uno,
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), Wi-Fi, Cloud Computing.
I. INTRODUCTION
IoT is the interconnection of computing gadgets that
communicates the data to the cloud. Data such obtained by
IoT is processed to perform necessary actions. The main
occupation in developing countries like India is agriculture.
Around 70% of the Indian population is reliant [directly or
indirectly] upon agriculture. Agriculture contributes 15 to
16% to the country’s GDP [Gross Domestic Product].
Agriculture is affected by numerous temporary changes such
as climate, soil erosion by flood, growing the same crop
again and again without scientific farming, etc. Adapting
smart farming gives results like less wastage of water, an
increase in the quality of crops and reduced usage of
resources. This helps to get a good yield of the crop at a
faster rate compared to previous farming methodology.
Nowadays agriculture requires various parameters, such as
the crop type suitable for the present soil condition, type of
irrigation, fertilizer requirement, etc. The soil monitoring
system for agriculture is a new system that uses parameters
such as moisture, temperature, humidity, ground
temperature, soil PH, etc.
Implementing IoT in agriculture utilizes sensors and
microcontrollers to make use of the system efficiently,
where sensors have the potential to get a large amount of
field information. By incorporating a distinctive sensor’s
data it is possible to decide on suitability and fertility of the
soil. IoT helps in providing a better yield of the crop which
improves productivity.
To monitor the crop in the agriculture field with
improved productivity it is necessary to know the condition
of the soil in the field. IoT helps in monitoring the field from
any geographic location whenever necessary. Moisture,
temperature, weather, and soil PH are considered for
monitoring soil conditions. Global System for Mobile
[GSM] technology is used to send the condition of the farm
to the user as discussed in [1]. Automation in agriculture
helps to adopt new technology by replacing old traditional
technology with less human interaction which helps in
increasing the production rate. In [2] the authors have used
Arduino Uno with a moisture sensor to measure soil
moisture; data is updated to the web page using GSM-GPRS
SIM900A, using which farmers can check the sprinkler
status. It concentrates on maintaining and monitoring the
soil moisture with an automated watering system. The
system considers three different parameters for better
productivity in crops. Due to global warming, the water
level is reducing so it is difficult in finding the variations in
soil moisture and fertility where different sensors are used
with Arduino Uno to measure temperature, humidity, and
moisture content and displayed on the LCD display is
explained in [3]. The work proposed in [4], for the use of
Arduino Uno in the irrigation system by considering water
flow sensors, moisture and temperature sensor. Sensed data
is sent to the website. Users can control the pump from a far
place using the website. It helps to maximize the crop with
less interaction of human errors. As explained in [5], water
is the primary factor of irrigation it is distributed only when
it is necessary which in turn helps to avoid water wastage

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 Proceedings of the International Conference on Electronics and Sustainable Communication Systems (ICESC 2020)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP20V66-ART; ISBN: 978-1-7281-4108-4

and soil degradation. Farmers need to know about the probes. Soil conducts more electricity (less resistance) when
parameters such as temperature, moisture, humidity and the presence of moisture content is more in the soil. If soil is
water consumption. Arduino Uno and Sensors are used with dry then it conducts less electricity (more resistance). The
the Wi-Fi module to send the data into the cloud. output of the sensor relies upon electric resistance of dry or
The objectives of smart irrigation system for IoT are: wet soil.
(i) To communicate various parameters of soil sensed
B. DHT11 Sensor:
through the sensors to the cloud using Arduino; (ii) To
apply machine learning to the live data received from the
sensors to classify based on the threshold values; (iii)
Based on the classification take action to send e-mail to
user; (iv) Send e-mail to the user to take appropriate
decision.

This paper is organized as follows: IoT devices for

Smart Agriculture are discussed in section II. Section III
explains the IoT Based Smart agriculture system. Section IV Fig. 3: DHT 11 T emperature and Humidity Sensor

explains the proposed methodology and algorithm. Section
V gives the results and discussion and Section VI concludes
the paper.
II. IOT DEVICES FOR SMART AGRICULT URE
Fig.3 shows the DHT11 sensor, utilized to gauge the
humidity and temperature in the environment. It measures
the temperature and water vapors present in the surrounding
air which is in gaseous state.
C. DS18B20 Sensor:

Fig. 1: Arduino Uno

Fig.1 shows the Arduino Uno microcontroller

Fig. 4: DS18B20 Waterproof T emperature Sensor
(Atmega328). Open-source Arduino Software is utilized to
execute, instructions provided by the user to get the readings
Fig.4 shows the DS18B20 sensor, utilized to measure
from the sensors. It has 0 to 13 digital input-output pins and
the temperature in the soil. It is encapsulated with stainless
analog input-output pins A0 to A5 with the operating
steel tube to measures the ground temperature. The
voltage being 7 to 20V. It is a microcontroller board with
temperature of the soil varies before and after irrigation.
inputs and outputs and it needs to be connected to the
computer using USB cable or battery to get started.

A. YL-38 Sensor: III. SMART SYSTEM FOR IRRIGATION USING IOT

IoT based smart agriculture system contains sensors,
microcontroller as hardware gadgets and Arduino as
software. Where combinations of both hardware and
software devices are used to determine the suitability of the
soil for agriculture purposes. Data that is sensed by the
sensors are sent to the cloud where live data is taken from
the sensor. The microcontroller is connected together with
sensors is showed in Fig. 5.
Fig. 2: YL 38Soil Moisture Sensor

Fig.2 shows the YL 38 sensor, is used to calculate the

percentage of water content present in the soil. It has two

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 Proceedings of the International Conference on Electronics and Sustainable Communication Systems (ICESC 2020)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP20V66-ART; ISBN: 978-1-7281-4108-4

Fig.6 circuit diagram shows the Aurdino Uno and

various sensors are used to gauge the soil data. Tools used
and their functionalities are given below:
 Arduino Uno: Microcontroller
 YL-38 Sensor: It is utilized to gauge the soil water
content.
 DHT11 Sensor: It is utilized to gauge the
temperature and humidity
 DS18B20 Sensor: Waterproof sensor utilized to
gauge the temperature of the soil
Wi-Fi module is utilized for transmitting the data to the
Fig. 5: System Architecture
cloud for further analysis.

 Input data are taken by the sens or from the external

environment.
 Sensors are controlled by arduino microcontroller.
 Every data is sensed discretely by sensors and
stores same to the cloud for further analysis.
 The threshold value of soil parameters is
considered to predict suitability.
 Message is sent to the user to take further actions
based on prediction.

T able 1: T hreshold values

Soil parameters Threshold value
Fig. 7: Experimental Setup
Moisture 30-80%
Temperature 18-40°C Fig.7 shows the experimental setup and various soil
(atmosphere) parameters that are sensed using a microcontroller and
Humidity 45-70% different sensors.
Soil temperature 20-40°C IV. PROPOSED MET HODOLOGY AND ALGORIT HM
IoT helps in the identification of soil suitability in
The parameter for the soil varies from place to
agriculture. Plants are dependent on environmental factors
place and time to time. Few parameters are considered in
that frequently change from time to time and place to place.
this work to predict the soil status. Table1 shows the various
Heterogeneous IoT devices such as sensors and Arduino
threshold values for different parameters of the soil.
Uno help to identify the parameters of soil. The proposed
LCD 16*2 Display DS18B20 Sensor DHT11Sensor scheme works as follows: 1) Every sensor senses the related
soil parameters and sends it to the Arduino. 2) The sensed
information is sent to ThingSpeak Cloud through arduino. 3)
The live data received from sensors are stored in cloud. 4)
Stored data is classified and analyzed using classification
algorithm at ThingSpeak cloud.5) The data such classified
which fall beyond threshold values are analyzed and an
email is sent to the user to perform necessary actions.

A. Proposed Algorithm

Nomenclature:
n: Number of data, Sm: Soil Moisture,
Sgt : Soil ground Temperature, M th : Soil Moisture threshold,
Arduino Uno Wi-Fi module YL-38 Sensor GTth : Ground Temperature threshold, DS: Data Store.
Fig. 6: Circuit Design

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 Proceedings of the International Conference on Electronics and Sustainable Communication Systems (ICESC 2020)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP20V66-ART; ISBN: 978-1-7281-4108-4

The data obtained from YL-38 Sensor, DHT11 Sensor,

Algorithm for Smart Irrigation System in Agriculture and DS18B20 Sensor help to take the necessary decision for
the farming land. Table.2 gives the sample data gauged by
1: Begin the different sensors.
2: Sensors senses data Sm and Sgt
3: Node MCU sends the sensed data to ThingSpeak
cloud a) Classification using KNN
4: Data processing in ThingSpeak
5: for i=1 to n
6: {
7: if (Sm >= M th ) && (Sgt >=GTth )
8: Classified as HIGH;
9: else
10: Classified as LOW;
11: end if
12 :}
13: if (Classification = HIGH)
14: Send e-mail to switch on motor
15: else
16: Store values in DS
17: End

Fig. 8: Accuracy of KNN Classifier

Data’s sensed by the sensors is sent to ThingSpeak
IoT platform cloud. Where classification algorithm is The above Fig.8 shows the accuracy of KNN classification
preferred on the data obtained discreetly and classified algorithm as 70.8% for the data set obtained by the sensors.
based on threshold value. All values falling above threshold
b) Classification using Naïve Bayes algorithm
value should be considered for action and for values falling
below threshold value can be stored in data store for further
analysis is explained in the above algorithm.

V. RESULT S AND DISCUSSION

Sensors discreetly send the data for analysis . It indicates
the variations in soil temperature, soil moisture content,
humidity and temperature of surroundings.

T able 2: Sample data received by sensors

Temp Humidit Soil temperature

Moist
eratur y (°C)
ure
e (%)
(%)
( °C) Fig. 9: Accuracy of Naïve Bayes Classifier
49 26 78 25.63
74 26 78 25.5 Fig. 9 shows the accuracy of Naïve Bayes classifier as
76.4% for the data set obtained from the sensors in the
76 28 75 29.4 proposed system.
72 24 82 23.45
c) Classification using SVM Algorithm
69 29 63 27.82
68 32 55 28.32
68 29 60 28.1

70 26 68 25.2

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 Proceedings of the International Conference on Electronics and Sustainable Communication Systems (ICESC 2020)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP20V66-ART; ISBN: 978-1-7281-4108-4
Fig. 10: Classification using SVM
Fig.10 signifies the representation of moisture with
ground temperature data. White dots indicate the values’
that are within the threshold value. And green dots represent
the values above the threshold value. For all data falling
above threshold value decision is taken and an email is sent
to the user.
Fig. 11: Accuracy of SVM Classifier
Fig. 11 shows the accuracy of Support Vector Machine
(SVM) classifier as 87.5% for the data set obtained from the
sensors in the proposed system.
d) Comparison of classification Algorithms
Fig. 12: Comparison graph
Fig.12 shows the comparison of KNN, Naïve Bayes, and
SVM classifier for accuracy. The above figure is clearly
understood that SVM performs better for the proposed
system by giving 87.5% accuracy whereas KNN is giving
70.8% and Naïve Bayes provides 76.4% accuracy for the
same data set obtained from the sensors.
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Fig. 13: Smart System for Irrigation in T hingSpeak Cloud
Fig. 13 shows the Smart Irrigation System in ThingSpeak
cloud where the information for the action to be performed
regarding the data beyond threshold value is being sent
through e-mail.
Fig. 14: e-mail to user from Smart System for Irrigation
Fig. 14 shows the e-mail being received by the user for the
values classified above the threshold.
VI. CONCLUSION
The proposed work provides the information on various soil
parameters that includes soil temperature, soil moisture and
atmospheric temperature to predict irrigation suitability.
This system helps to analyze the soil parameters thereby
ensuring a better system of irrigation for agriculture. The
data collected from the sensors are made to learn using
machine learning techniques to ensure a fully automated
system. Implementing an IoT based smart agriculture
system helps in obtaining quality crops and it also reduces
the human involvement in agricultural activities. As seen in
results the Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification
algorithm suits better for the data set obtained from the
proposed method by providing 87.5 percent accuracy and
performed better than KNN Classifier and Naive Bayes
Classifier. In the present work correlation of Soil
temperature and soil moisture is considered for
classification. In future work classification based on the
correlation of all the four parameters can be considered; also
the system can be enhanced in future to predict the fertility
of the soil by considering soil fertility parameters.
764
 Proceedings of the International Conference on Electronics and Sustainable Communication Systems (ICESC 2020)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP20V66-ART; ISBN: 978-1-7281-4108-4

Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHT C 2014). IEEE,

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