IoT Sensor Network Approach for Smart Farming: An Application in Food, Energy and Water System

As the global population soars from today's 7.3 billion to an estimated 10 billion by 2050, the demand for Food, Energy and Water (FEW) is expected to more than double. Such an increase in population and consequently, in the demand for FEW resources will undoubtedly be a great challenge for humankind. A challenge that will be exacerbated by the need for humankind to meet the greater demand for resources with a smaller ecological footprint. This paper is proposing a system developed to optimize the use of water, energy, fertilizers for agricultural crops as a solution to this great challenge. It is an automated smart irrigation system that uses real time data from wireless sensor networks to schedule an irrigation. The test-bed consists of a wireless network monitoring soil moisture, temperature, solar radiation, humidity, and fertilizer sensors embedded in the root area of the crops and around the test-bed. Wireless sensor data transmission and acquisition is managed by an Access Point (AP) using ZigBee protocol. An algorithm was established based on threshold values of temperature and soil moisture automated into a programmable micro-controller to control irrigation time. The system's energy demand is completely supplied by a solar Photo-voltaic (PV) panel supplemented with an energy storage unit. The experimental data obtained from this prototype will be modeled and optimized to investigate food production profile as a function of energy and water consumption. It will also attempt to understand the effect of extreme weather conditions on food production. This holistic approach will explore the nexus between water and energy resources, and crop yield for several essential crops in an attempt to design a more sustainable method to meet the forecasted surge in demand.