ABSTRACT
An automatic irrigation system was designed and implemented using simply circuit system and modeling. It was designed to facilitate sustainable crop production by adequate crop water management, additionally, other objective of the designed was to save time and replace manual irrigation processes. The design of the system was considered to be adaptable to any soil sample although a loamy soil sample was used. The system was programmed based on the, sensors and soil water condition of the soil to ensure a continuous monitoring of the soil moisture level to know when irrigation is necessary. A soil moisture sensor was designed using a sensitive material that responds to current flow in the soil through water medium. The sensor was connected to the main-platform which was developed using Arduino Uno board designed with other electronic components including relay, resistor capacitor, rectifier, 12v and 15v transformer, etc. A small water pump of 0.015lg was used to lift the water from the water container to the sprinkler head at a recommended height. Two rubber container was used to demonstrate the working principle of the system, one of the rubbers was filled with water to were the pump was connected to while the other rubber was filled with loamy soil sample to the height of where the soil sensor was. The sprinkler was also located by the secon0.d rubber to irrigation the soil and the crop planted. The system was connected to Wi-Fi network using android phone which was used to activate the system. A specific threshold value was selected for the system and the operated only up to the threshold value. When the water level of the selected system threshold value was reached a signal was sent to the android system in which the user deactivates the system and vise visa. At a selected threshold value, it was concluded that the threshold value of the system depends on the water requirement of the crop planted in the area in which the system was used. The result of the threshold value selection of the system for the four selected crops showed that for beans, the threshold value to supply the water requirement of the crop per day was 99 with respect to 3mm/day in 2 hrs, for maize, the threshold value was selected at 150 to supply 6mm/day in 4 hrs. while threshold value for groundnut was at 115 to supply 5 mm/day in 3 hrs 45 min., and 107 threshold value for soybean was selected to supply mm/day of the water requirement in 3 hrs 30min. the graphs for the results showed that the threshold parameters are linearly increasing with respect to each other.
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study
Generally, water is required by both plant and animal in good quantity and quality. Water helps to dissolve some of the organic nutrient of the soil thereby making the nutrient available for crops; additionally it cools the soil and makes it favourable for plant growth. Naturally, water is supply to the plant through precipitations or rain water, in areas with deficit natural water, an alternative method is applied. Apparently, irrigation water is supplement to supply the crop with required water. But now days, water shortage is becoming one of the biggest problem in the world and there should be a solution to such problem (Edmond et al, 2015), such solution is based on water conservations with time and resources management. As concluded by (Joaquine et al, 2014), agriculture uses 85% of available freshwater resource worldwide. To find remedy to such problems, many systems are design to achieve water savings in various crops, from basic ones to more technologically advance ones (Alejandra et al, 2014).
In the earliest farm practice, water was locally supply to the crops with the use of manual methods “that is using hard or small container”. Advanced farmers applied the used of sieve container to make the water supply in a spray form. However, the methods were later recognized non-economical as technology hit the face of the earth. Subsequently, adoption of basic irrigation system becomes predominantly used in the first phase of irrigation technology. The system was assumed to save time and cost, also to enhance productivity. As human beings seek modern life, irrigation system stepped into the third (3rd) phase of its technology in which sensors are used to automatically supply water to the crops and the basic irrigation system is less valued especially in mechanized farm, due to its less efficiency and time wastage. To contribute to the solution of water wastage and enhance efficient use of water, a proposed automatic irrigation system was designed to suit the 3rd phase of irrigation system in agriculture and its enhancement.
Consequently, “Automatic irrigation system using Wi-Fi Control” was proposed in this project work. It uses a model to control irrigation facilities to help millions of farmer’s achieve their crop production with good timing serving. It is designed with an integrated soil moisture sensor (by Technocrat)
1 .2 Aim and Objectives of the Study
1.2.1 Aim
The aim of this project is to replace Manual method of irrigation with the automatic system method using Arduino Uno sensing device that communicate with android apps system.
1.2.2 Objective:
The main objective of this project is to save time, cost and power used for irrigation by Farmers.
The project also targets at offering automated intervention to irrigation problem associated with time.
1.3 Significant of the Study
To obtain a reliable automated intervention on irrigation problem, the need of improving on the existing or earliest form or type of irrigation system is highly important. The project was design to bridge such needs by ensuring atomization of quantity of water supply to the crops on the farm at a time.
- Additionally, it ensures continuous monitoring of available soil water for the plant (achieving through the use of soil moisture sensor).
- It communicates feedback of the soil water condition to the farm via smart android devices.
- It helps the farmer to know when the water is necessary for supply.
1.4 Statement of Problem
In the global life of the contemporaries, farmers struggle hard in agricultural operation to meet up with the high demand of the population on crop production. Efforts to achieve this mostly yield unsatisfied production and time wastage. In most country, agricultural products yield high income as national source of income. According to ( Fereres and Connor, 2004) globally food production obtained through irrigation accounts for 40% of the total national expected income, whereby only about 17% of the land set aside is specifically utilized for food production. The most troubling problem in the society is quality water as ascertained by (Jury and Vaux, 2007).
In Nigeria, crop yield 24.4% of total nation agro income according to (GNP reports 2017).
Crops requires good amount of water for advantageous condition, in some Part of the world, where natural precipitation is not sufficient, this is a case in Kenya according to (worldbank,2017), means are adopted to meet up with water requirement of the crops. Irrigation helps to supplement artificial water for natural precipitation to ensure effective crops water requirement. In the earliest practices of the method, the task was done manually before it was upgraded to normal irrigation system. Adoption of this system only approach efficiency but cannot reach average satisfaction. With earliest irrigation system, irrigation work was difficult especially in large farm land were farmers are engaged in many farm works at a time. Hence water was highly wasted with irrigation timing which resulted in other production lost.
To rectify such problems and find remedy to it this project is proposed to develop an automatic system of micro controller base on soil moisture sensor in which the task of irrigating the farm is controlled via android phone using Wi-Fi network for control.
1.5 Scope of Study
The project is designed with the goal of developing an automation irrigation system that offers the user a complete control of water on the farm.
The sensor is design with the working capacity and principle of been controlled from a central host PC and also remotely accessed via a mobile base application using smart phone product.
The system is also designed to atomize and be sensitive to soil moisture condition and communicate such condition to the farmer via information sent to a user interface.
1.6 Limitation of the Project
- The system required constant power supply.
- The system is suitable in an area with low or no rainfall
- In absent of android system, the designed system cannot be used
1.7 Arrangement of the Project
The project report consists of five chapters and is arranged as follows:
Chapter one contains the general idea and knowledge about the project such as the background of study, significant of study, aim and objective, problem statement and scope and limitation, also the organization of the report.
Chapter two details with theoretical background of the research and a review of other past work related subject matter including home automated technologies and other researches.
The chapter three of this report involves the materials, design concept and methodology as well as design calculation, detailed block diagram and circuit diagram of the sensor.
The chapter four contains experiment and test carried out, their respective result and the discussion of the system performance.
The chapter five contains the conclusion and recommendation of the project work.
1.8 Justification of the Study
Due to global changes, environment conditions of some places in the world vary drastically resulting in climatic effect that affects crops. In such conditions, irrigation remains one of the prime factors of crops productions. In large area of crop land, needs of optimizes water use becomes importance to meet the water requirement of the crops planted with less labour.
Integrating advance knowledge in electronics and agriculture engineering automation of irrigation system for efficient use of water and time saving became a forefront in enhancing crop production using simple Arduino Uno board. The board was used together with other sensors to achieve soil moisture monitoring and timely irrigation.
The knowledge of the proposed system ensures supply of water to the crops by automatic control via off line network connection through any connection through any connected Android system. The system save time and cost, hence, improve crop yield.