2019 International Conference on Sustainable Technologies
for Industry 4.0 (STI), 24-25 December, Dhaka
Precision Agriculture: Renewable Energy Based
Smart Crop Field Monitoring and Management
System Using WSN via IoT
Mohammad Samunul Islam1, Golap Kanti Dey2
Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering1, Dept. of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering2
School of Science and Engineering, Chittagong Independent University, Bangladesh
samunul.islam@gmail.com, golap@ciu.edu.bd*
Abstract— Although economy of the 21st century is
exceedingly reliable on industrialization, agriculture works as
an unavoidable driving force for economic growth of the
country like Bangladesh where advancement of wireless
technologies, computational techniques and system engineering
have rendered new opportunities to promote our existing
agricultural system. This paper work depicts the design and
implementation of a solar energy based precision agriculture
(PA) with wireless sensory network (WSN) via Internet of
Things (IoT) architecture to meet the demand of finding highly
efficient methods for smart agricultural monitoring and
management system. Our proposed system will provide
valuable data about salt water intrusion, soil moisture, water
level, humidity, temperature as well as the general condition of
the crop field to the farmers in a user friendly, easily accessible
manner with real time data communication via IoT. We can
monitor the crop field conditions by using smartphone and will
be able to take the necessary steps remotely on the basis of
present conditions. We have utilized our proposed system and
collected experimental data from south-western and south-
eastern part of Bangladesh.
Keywords— WSN, precision agriculture, IoT, salt water
intrusion, soil moisture, solar panel.
I. INTRODUCTION
Precision agriculture (PA) [1-2] is an intelligent
farming approach based on monitoring, computing and
giving response to the field variabilities in crops and crop
field. Due to the promising capability of improving
agricultural productivity, minimizing damage to the
environment and reducing production cost, PA is
continuously replacing existing empiric-based farming
system to automatic, modern, information-based and
sustainable agriculture. This new dimension of agricultural
system takes advantage from the emergence and integration
of recent technologies [3], such as the advanced wireless
sensory network (WSN), mobile computing, and global
positioning system (GPS), geographic information system
(GIS), miniaturized components, automatic control, remote
sensing and IoT.
On the other hand, IoT [4] creates a new dimension for
technology to revolutionize many industries including the
safety and production issues of food as well as agriculture.
IoT offers a suitable solution for smart crop filed monitoring
and management system, although, it remains in
imagination until the internet connectivity is not reached to
rural areas. According to the scientific research [5], IoT
978-1-7281-6099-3/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
based precision agriculture will enhance the food production
by 70% and will afford foods up to 9.6 billion people where
in total 2 billion sensors will be used in 525 million farms
by the year 2050. In addition, one of the most promising
elements in the IoT paradigm is wireless sensor networks
(WSN) [6]. In this research wireless sensor network (WSN)
[7-8] is used for collecting data from crop field using
salinity sensor, soil moisture sensor, water level detector and
humidity sensor.
The potentiality of the WSN will be fully unleashed once
it is becoming a part of the Internet of Things (IoT).
Research works are going on how efficiently WSN and IoT
can be integrated to monitor and manage a crop field with
increased farm profitability as well as with reduced risk. Juan
M. Nunez V [9] utilized WSN for PA in the white cabbage
crop field where they found the optimal ranges to increase
productivity and how to avoid losses due to uncontrolled
agroclimatic variables. Tamoghna Ojha [10] surveyed the
implementations of WSN for different farming aspects in the
Indian and global scenario. H.M.Jawad [11] prepared an
outline on the current utilizations of WSNs in agriculture as
well as the classification and comparison of different
wireless communication protocols, the taxonomy of energy
harvesting and energy-efficient approach. AH Abbas [12]
illustrated how we can use WSN for the smart watering
system where total irrigation method is governed by using
the valves. Ragheid Atta [13] applied three different sensor
nodes to design an automated watering system for dry
regions in Saudi Arabia, where water resources are very
limited. However, each sensor node can measure temperature
and humidity and soil moisture. Researchers in the article
[14] proposed real-time establishment of WSN to realize PA
for the greenhouse management system.
The aim of this proposed scheme is to make a smart
device for irrigation system to control the unnecessary water
flow into the crops field by switching the motor. In addition,
temperature, moisture and humidity of the crop field readings
are continuously monitored by using temperature, moisture
and humidity sensor and to avoid the salt water intrusion we
have used salinity sensor. All sensory outputs are sent to the
assigned IP address of our web server. Android
application(smartphone) continuously shows the data about
motor status, salinity of water, soil moisture, environmental
temperature and humidity values from the assigned web
server. Once the soil moisture values are exceeded the
particular limit then the motor driver which is connected to
the Arduino Nano microcontroller controls the motor.
 Figure 1. Proposed Architecture for WSN Based Precision Agriculture via IoT

III. CONSTITUENT SUB MODULES

II. FRAMEWORK OF THE SYSTEM A. Soil Moisture Sensor
The overall IoT based crop filed monitoring and A Soil moisture sensor is one of the key elements in our
management system architecture is presented in figure 1. proposed system. It is most sensitive to the environment
The proposed system will operate with multiple steps. First usually used to observe moisture of the soil in the crop field.
of all, after turning on the device the motor will be The moisture sensor can be used to detect the moisture of the
connected to raspberry pi. Soil moisture, humidity and soil when the soil is dry and in that case the module outputs a
temperature, soil temperature, water level and salinity high level, otherwise the output will be low [15]. The soil
sensor using the system work automatically by sensor moisture is an significant component that we have taken into
values. All sensors are connected into Arduino NANO for account which is not a random factor such as relative
converting sensor analog to digital values. A Wi-Fi humidity and temperature.
microchip module will be connected with the raspberry pi.
That’s how the system will be connected with the internet.
Now if the system mode set into manual mode then micro-
controller unit will send the data to the android device. From
the user’s android mobile phone user then receive a push
notification from the system. And in that notification user
will see the sensor data. After checking the current
condition, the user will then take proper action. In another
way if the user set the operation mode automatic then the
system will take sensors data and calculate them. If the
value determined a preferable for irrigation then water pump
will be turned on. On the other hand, if the value isn’t
preferable for water irrigation then the system remains
turned off.

Figure 2. Soil Moisture Sensor


Figure 3. DHT 11 Application Circuit
B. Humidity and Temperature Sensor
The DHT11 [16] is employed to detect Humidity and
Temperature of the crop filed environment. It can measure a
humidity value in the range of 20 – 95% of Relative
Humidity (RH) and a temperature in the scale degree
centigrade [16]. DHT11 sensor is integrated with Raspberry
Pi. The sensory data contains integral and decimal parts for
both RH and temperature.
C. Salinity Sensor
To detect salt water intrusion, we have built a salinity
sensor using BC548 IC. We have used BC548 transistor for
the switching purposes. We have connected 5V power to the
collector, and 5V power with a 1k resistor to the base. When
the collector will be powered then the base will be working
as a switch. The collector has two probes which is kept into
the water tank. When saline water come to the water tank
then the probe will pass the electricity because salt water is
good conductor. This output power connects to Arduino
Nano as analog signal through a LED. Then the signal
using raspberry pi for system processed.
Figure 4. Salinity Sensor Built with BJT BC548
D. Water Level Sensor
Here we have also used BC548 transistor as water
level sensor where it senses the water level and provide
necessary signal to the raspberry pi. When collector will
get powered the base will work as a switch. In addition,
when the base emitter voltage exceeds its cut off value
then it make the collector and emitter terminal short
circuited and make the current flow through it.
E. Motor Driver
We have used L298N [17] dual H-Bridge IC as a motor
driver module to pump water for the irrigation in the crop
filed. L298N IC can control the speed and direction
simultaneously of DC motors. It can drive DC motors
having voltage range within 5V - 35V, with a peak current
up to 2A. In this module 2 Input and 2 output pins for each
motor are available. If we want to increase the pumping
efficiency we can use both of these output pins having
connected with two dc motors. However, the ENA and ENB
pins must be HIGH to activate the motors.
Figure 5. L298 Motor Driver with Motor
F. Solar Panel
In the 21st century people are now seeking sustainable
source of energy to power the PA based smart monitoring
system to alleviate burning of fossil fuel. Here we have used
solar panel which consists of photovoltaic and the power is
stored in the rechargeable battery. Although the initial cost of
solar installation is higher than the conventional source of
electricity it is suitable to the rural area that is why the solar
system is used as a power supplier rather using other
conventional source. The equivalent circuit of a solar panel
[18] is known in the figure 8. where it includes a current
source, one diode and two resistors, one in series and one in
parallel. The used solar panel is scratch resistant, waterproof
and UV resistant with having high efficiency monocrystalline
cell where substrate is an aluminum / plastic composite,
specifically designed to be strong and lightweight. In this
research the solar panel is connected with a 12 V DC Battery
to store power for continuous service.
Figure 6. Equivalent circuit [18] of Solar Panel
IV. FLOW CHART OF THE SYSTEM
In IoT Based irrigation system it executes overall task
into multiple steps. When we run this system, it shows two
different modes- the mode number is 1 and 2. If we press 1,
then the system will work manually. So the system can
control manually where we can turn motor switch on and off
by using android device. When we press 2, then the system
will be working automatically by analyzing WSN values. If
the crop field needs irrigation then the motor will be start
automatically. When water fulfills the field condition then
the motor will be automatically off. Each and every step of
the proposed smart PA based monitoring system is
monitored and can be managed by using android phone.
However, another great significance of the auto mode is that
when the proposed system find any salt water intrusion in
the crop field then salinity sensor detect it and send a
comment to the system to off this motor because salty water
is very harmful for plant. The system can print current status
of the crops field continuously.

G. Arduino NANO
Arduino NANO is a small, consistent, flexible and
breadboard friendly Microcontroller. It comes with an
operating voltage of 5V.We have connected power of
Arduino from Raspberry Pi by using USB cable. We set
command and logic in the Arduino by using Arduino
Software. Our all wireless sensor network (WSN) is
connected with Arduino NANO analog pins to convert it to
digital. We have taken output signal of WSN from Arduino
Nano outputs pins which are digitals signals and connected
this to Raspberry Pi inputs pins.

Figure 7. Arduino NANO

H. Raspberry Pi 3B
The Raspberry is very effective, portable and flexible
microcontroller. It is a small pocket size computer which is
like a credit card. We have used this for our proposed
system controlling. In our proposed system all logic and
programming are monitored by this device. We have used
Raspberry Pi 3B which is latest version of raspberry pi. It
has a Wi-Fi module which is the significant part for out IoT
integration with the proposed system. Figure 8. Flow Chart of the Proposed System
 Figure 9. Schematic of Proposed IoT Based Precision Agriculture

V. RESULT AND IMPLEMENTATION VI. EXPERIMENTAL DATA TABLE FOR TWO DIFFERENT
Our proposed smart system for IoT based PA has been PLACES
successfully implemented and the setup has been examined TABLE I. EXPERIMENTAL VALUE OF SOUTH-EASTERN PART OF
for shorter version as well as in real life applications. We BANGLADESH (CHITTAGONG)
have used our setup in the south-eastern part (Chittagong-
Experiment carried out on 07 November 2019) and south-
western part (Bagerhat- Experiment carried out on 20
October, 2019) of Bangladesh where we had environmental
temperature reading, soil temperature, humidity, soil
moisture and salinity value. However, android interface is
also successfully developed where wireless sensory data for
different interfaces can be found in the figure.10.

TABLE II. EXPERIMENTAL VALUE OF SOUTH-WESTERN PART OF

BANGLADESH (BAGERHAT)

Figure 9. Experimental deployment of WSN Based Smart

crop field monitoring system
 Figure 10. Different interfaces of android application showing Wireless Sensory Data for Table I.
VII. CONCLUSION
The incorporation of WSNs for IoT based precision
agriculture to be useful in the 21st century for the
development of the agricultural and farming industries by
introducing new dimensions. After utilizing the industry 4.0
technology such IoT, we have perfectly designed and
deployed a smart crop field monitoring system using
different wireless sensory network for the farmers of
Bangladesh where the required electricity for the water pump
has provided using sustainable technology such as solar
panel to avoid interrupted power supply due to the load
shedding as well as to alleviate burning of fossil fuels.
However, our proposed system has been successfully
experimented at the southern and western part of the country
( Chittagong, Bagerhat ) where tidal and salty water intrusion
is an issue for the irrigation. In our next work we will work
on the plants disease detection by imaging sensors for PA as
well as the development of a Field Programmable Gate
Array (FPGA) controlled shared smart antenna for soil
moisture measuring radiometer.
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