Smart Water Irrigation For Rice Farming Through The Internet of Things
Smart Water Irrigation For Rice Farming Through The Internet of Things
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Smart Water Irrigation for Rice Farming through the Internet of Things
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Short Paper
Smart Water Irrigation for Rice Farming through the
Internet of Things
Regie Binayao
College of Computer Studies, Northern Bukidnon State College, Philippines
[email protected]
Recommended citation:
Binayao, R., Mantua, P., Namocatcat, H., Seroy, J., Sudaria, P., Gumonan, K. &
Orozco, S. (2024). Smart Water Irrigation for Rice Farming through the Internet of
Things. International Journal of Computing Sciences Research, 8, 2550-2563.
https://doi.org/ 10.25147/ijcsr.2017.001.1.172
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original work is properly credited.
Abstract
Purpose – This study intends to build smart water irrigation for rice farming using IoT and
micro-controller devices with solar panel support. The system demonstrates the capabilities
of automated irrigation by reducing physical labor through smart monitoring of the
temperature, soil moisture, and humidity using multiple sensors.
Method – This paper uses an agile methodology as it is suitable for reiterative operation for
the development of the prototype.
Results - The mean result for the interpretation of data gathered for the system’s
adaptability and flexibility is 4.32. This figure shows that the selected farmers who took the
survey understood and agreed with the prototype and its capability as an effective
functionality to solve the problems in rice farming.
Conclusion – The researchers were able to develop a smart water irrigation for rice farming
using IoT and micro-controller devices with solar panel support and the respondents also
agreed that the Smart water irrigation for rice farming using IoT and micro-controller
devices with solar panel support is practical and valuable.
Research Implications – Smart water irrigation has the potential to revolutionize agriculture,
enhance environmental sustainability, and address pressing global challenges related to
water resources and food security. These implications highlight the importance of continued
research and innovation in this field.
Keywords – smart water irrigation, Internet of Things, rice farming, Arduino, agriculture
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INTRODUCTION
Rice is life, especially for Filipinos and other Asians. Even with the availability of other
staple foods such as noodles and bread, rice remains the primary choice for staple food in
the Philippines (National Nutrition Council, 2020). Rice farming in the Philippines is plagued
with problems both from natural and agricultural adversities. Common problems
encountered by rice farmers were: the high cost of inputs, low price of rice, lack of capital,
labor problems, lack of post-harvest facilities, pests and diseases, and irrigation system
(Rani et al., 2019). The agriculture industry is crucial to meeting the nation’s needs for food
resources (Dhruva et al., 2021). According to Keller of the International Water Management
Institute, agriculture continuously contends with home, industrial, and environmental
users for a finite amount of water. The availability of water to support healthy crops is
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either insufficient or excessive. Farmers may find it difficult during the dry season, to get,
and farmers have to decide how to share the water for the rice fields equally.
The rice fields that are close to the water source benefit considerably since they receive
a lot of water, but those that are far from the source struggle to get water supplies. In daily
operations associated with farming, watering is the most vital cultural practice, especially
in rice cultivation. Smart irrigation system uses the right amount of water in the right place.
It lowers effort and saves time. Even weather patterns are detectable by it. Because of this,
a battery, rapid charger, solar panels, and sensors have been included in an automatic
irrigation system. The dynamic water above and below the surface is detected by soil
moisture, temperature, and humidity sensors (Shufian et al., 2021). Farmers will find it
easier to worry about their rice fields and encounter fewer issues with rice field irrigation
thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT) information on water requirements in rice fields
being monitored at a distance (Rawal, 2017).
The goal of the development of Smart Water Irrigation for Rice Farming through the
Internet of Things (SWIMPS) is to make automatic water irrigation and smart monitoring
of temperature, humidity, and soil moisture to lessen the farmer's manual operation in rice
farming and to save input costs that would directly affect the rice agricultural scheme by
using renewable energy specifically the integration of solar panel in the system. This study
will greatly benefit rice farmers, especially in the acknowledgment of technology in the
agriculture of rice farming.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Water Management
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water irrigation system incorporates a drip irrigation unit, a wireless communication
component, and a sensor network to efficiently manage water distribution based on cloud-
based control (Guevara et al., 2020).
Smart Farming
A user-friendly must also be provided that allows users to monitor the field through an
application. Additionally, it autonomously regulates and monitors soil irrigation
(Ezenwobodo & Samuel, 2022). Utilizing the website for communication and monitoring
authorizes users to interact with the sensors instantly. This proves beneficial for users
engaging with the microcontrollers from any location, reducing power consumption and
enhancing the system's lifespan, all achieved with a relatively modest investment (Sanjana
Pandey, 2021). A strategy that aims to enable remote accessibility to the system, ensuring
that farmers have constant information and control over their fields 24/7 throughout the
entire year was configured through a Renesas microcontroller, which manages the
transmission and reception of data through a GSM module (Kumari & Singh, 2021).
Utilization of the BLYNK application on a mobile platform offers a streamlined approach to
advancing Internet of Things (IoT) projects. This versatile platform not only simplifies the
development process but also empowers users with the ability to create customized
interfaces tailored to their specific IoT applications. In the context of an irrigation system,
BLYNK plays a pivotal role by providing a user-friendly interface on mobile devices. The
BLYNK application enables users to effortlessly monitor and control their irrigation systems.
Furthermore, BLYNK supports compatibility with a diverse range of IoT hardware platforms
and communication protocols, offering flexibility in device integration. This adaptability
makes it an ideal choice for those seeking to implement IoT solutions across different
devices and environments (Rathore et al., 2023).
Internet of Things
Through automation and a reduction in human effort, IoT can improve the efficiency of
agricultural and farming activities (Kondur et al., 2021; Velmurugan et al., 2020). The exact
use of this technology in conjunction with the Internet of Things (IoT) is intended to be the
technology that helps farmers improve their standard of life through high productivity and
profit. The need for human involvement can be significantly reduced through the
implementation of this technology. With all the positive things involved the challenges of
components' high costs, lack of internet access, and a lack of application knowledge among
farmers, there are still restrictions on the conversion and adoption of smart farms today
(Virk et al., 2020; Rafique et al., 2021). Another aspect of smart water irrigation that needs
to be addressed is power sources. Because of this, a battery, rapid charger, and solar panels
must be included in an automatic irrigation system (Shufian et al., 2021). All of the
components concerned from the Arduino and to all of its sensors and other components,
need a stable power source to make things work together to achieve the intended result.
Emphasis on power generation and consumption must always be put into consideration
especially those that come from renewable energy sources (Sudharshan et al., 2019).
The researchers reviewed the existing studies to derive all the functionalities needed for
the SWIMP system to address the gaps of the previous research. All the areas for robust
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irrigation management system through the Internet of Things was not addressed by the
relevant literature, but with the Smart Water Irrigation System, all the functionalities are
uniquely possessed. Based on the reviewed related literature, there is a need for the
development of Irrigation Systems that utilize renewable energy sources such as the
integration of Solar panels. When there is a surplus of solar energy, the controller enables
the system to charge the battery. In daily operations associated with farming, watering is
the most vital cultural practice, especially in rice cultivation. The use of humidity,
temperature, and moisture sensors is also a must to help optimize irrigation operations by
providing real-time data of soil condition notification to the mobile application in the
farmer’s smartphones. The proponents also utilized Node-mcu instead of the Arduino
microcontroller that was used by the relevant studies, because it offers a convenient cost-
effective solution for developers who need wireless fidelity connectivity.
METHODOLOGY
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Functional Requirements
The following Functional Requirements are the major components used in Smart
Water Irrigation IoT.
1. The Solar Panel is added to sustain an energy supply of 12 volts to the entire system.
2. TP4056 Lithium-Ion battery is a backup battery supply that protects the system
from power outages and power fluctuation.
3. ESP8266 module is a Wireless fidelity module integrated into the microcontrollers
for the system to connect to the Internet.
4. DC water pumps are included to circulate, pressurize, and emulsify water.
5. DHT11 is a basic, ultra-low-cost digital temperature and humidity sensor. It
measures the humidity in the air using a thermistor and a capacitive humidity
sensor, and it outputs a digital signal on the data pin.
6. Soil moisture sensors measure the water content in the soil and can be used to
estimate the amount of stored water in the soil horizon.
7. BLYNK is an IoT platform for iOS or Android smartphones that is used to control
Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and NodeMCU through the Internet. This application is used
to create a graphical interface or human-machine interface (HMI) by compiling and
providing the appropriate address on the available widgets.
Design Phase
Designing the system is an important part of the process, where the researchers start
to specify what to create in the making phase based on the information the researchers
gathered in the planning phase. In this phase, the researchers prepared the specifications
and design of the system hardware, some of the system’s hardware components
specifications were based on the following research: “AQUAMAG: Smart Water Quality
Monitoring through Internet of Things” (Tubio et., Al, 2023) and “GULP: Solar-Powered
Smart Garbage Segregation Bins with SMS Notification and Machine Learning Image
Processing” (Sigongan et al., 2023).
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Development Phase
The researchers developed the mobile User Interface using an open-source Blynk
application and programmed the microcontroller using the Arduino IDE Application. The
process of the system initially starts when the soil moisture sensor senses low detection of
water content in the soil. The system will then enable the water pump so that it will release
an ample amount of water enough to maintain the soil moisture level. The current
temperature and humidity measured by the DHT11 sensor will be automatically shown in the
I2C Oled display.
The most popular IDE for combining hardware and software components in a system
is the Arduino IDE. It is used to develop the Smart Water Irrigation IoT system using C++
language, code the system's ESP8266 microprocessor to meet the requirements of the
system specification, and display all of the application’s features with the aid of the open-
source BLYNK IOT application, which focuses on information of things. This microprocessor
will serve as the brain of the system, in which it will constantly receive data from the sensors
and trigger an output module if certain parameters are met.
Figure 3. Hardware System in Steel Container Frame with the sample Rice Plant
Figure 3 shows the enclosed container for the System Modules made from Glass and
Aluminum material. The system includes the following components ESP8266, Relay Module,
Li-ion 3.7v Batteries, TP4056 Charge Controller, Wire Adapters, Solar Panel, DHT11 Sensor,
Soil Moisture Sensor, and Plastic Container that contains the Water Pump.
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Figure 4. 2 Nursery Rice Seedlings in Pot Containers with the System
Figure 4 shows the actual 2 nursery rice seedlings in pot containers with the Smart
Water Irrigation IoT System. After a month of implementing the system to the rice plants’
growth procedure. The outcome is that the rice plants are healthy because they yield
enough nutrients to grow and the water content of the soil is well balanced.
Feedback Phase
Feedback is the final phase of the agile development cycle. After the researchers
have evaluated and tested the System and have met the required outcomes, the system
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is now ready to be presented. During the testing and evaluation of the end users, the
rice farmers, the survey questionnaires were distributed to them, and users and clients
tested the system as part of the evaluation process.
RESULTS
The system evaluation portion determines the feedback of the personnel and
ensures the quality of the final output. ISO/IEC 25010:2011 standards are used for the
system evaluation given to the farmer participants. The researchers let the twenty-eight
(28) respondents try the system and gathered their feedback by letting them answer
the research evaluation questionnaire prepared. The researchers used the Likert scale
below in interpreting the data gathered.
Table 1 shows the Overall results that were supplied for the ISO/IEC 25010.2011
assessment. The findings support the notion that the feedback provided during the
presentation itself was constructive. Functional sustainability is rated at 4.50, indicating an
excellent level of performance in terms of maintaining functionality over time.
Performance efficiency is scored at 4.22, reflecting excellent efficiency in carrying out tasks.
Compatibility receives a rating of 4.33, signifying excellent adaptability and integration
capabilities with other systems. Usability is assessed at 4.13, marking it as very good and
suggesting a high degree of user-friendliness. Similarly, reliability is also rated at 4.13,
indicating a very good level of dependability in the system's performance. Security is highly
rated at 4.55, indicating an excellent level of protection against unauthorized access and
potential threats. Maintainability is scored at 4.25, reflecting the system's excellent ease of
maintenance and updates. Portability is rated at 4.42, indicating excellent adaptability for
use in various environments. The respondents regarded the Smart Water Irrigation as
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functional and advantageous to them, giving it an overall average satisfaction rating of 4.32
which was verbally interpreted as “Excellent”.
DISCUSSIONS
The study has achieved a comprehensive compilation of both hardware and software
specifications essential for measuring soil moisture, temperature, and humidity. The primary
objective was to analyze the collected data, ultimately determining the requisite software
and hardware specifications for the system's development. Integration with the open-
source application, BLYNK IOT, facilitated the display of device outputs, including soil
moisture, temperature, and humidity conditions.
The successful design and development of the system involved the utilization of
BLYNK IOT, incorporating monitoring gauges and microcontroller-based components for
efficient data collection. To validate the system's capabilities, the researchers conducted
thorough testing and evaluation. The focus of this evaluation was on assessing the
performance of both the software and hardware components.
In practical application, the system was deployed and tested in the agricultural
setting of Rice Farmers in Dicklum, Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon. The obtained results,
reflected in the 4.32 overall average mean, interpreted as "Excellent," highlighted the
system's commendable performance. This positive rating implies that the system is well-
suited for the intended purpose and showcases reliability, usability, and efficiency in
providing valuable insights into soil conditions for rice cultivation. The success of the study
thus validates the practical utility of the developed system in real-world agricultural
scenarios.
Based on the result of Table 2 of the Overall results that were supplied from the
ISO/IEC 25010.2011 assessment, it is interpreted that the functionality, suitability,
performance efficiency, compatibility, usability, reliability, security, maintainability, and
portability rated by the respondents was regarded as “Excellent” having an overall
weighted mean rate of 4.32.
In conclusion Smart Water Irrigation IoT System meets the objective of the study
in which to develop and design the system, the system also integrated the moisture,
humidity, temperature, and soil detection functionalities, designed push notification,
developed the BLYNK IoT monitoring app., also developed the system with renewable
energy through solar panel, and lastly monitored the growth of rice and help the rice
farmers in using the system through user testing through the ISO 25010.2011 the system
was commended by the end users and rated excellent.
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include for the benefit of future researchers. Future researchers are advised to add an
extra component, such as an ultrasonic sensor to monitor water levels.
IMPLICATIONS
The research can help refine and improve smart irrigation systems to optimize
water usage in agriculture. This not only conserves water resources but also addresses
concerns related to water scarcity and drought conditions. Investigating the impact of
different smart irrigation techniques on crop yield and quality is essential. Researchers
can explore how precise irrigation can enhance productivity and the nutritional content
of crops. Climate change is affecting global weather patterns. The research can help
develop smart irrigation systems that can adapt to changing weather conditions and
ensure sustainable agricultural practices in the face of climate variability. Exploration of
how data analytics and machine learning can be used to analyze the vast amount of data
generated by smart irrigation systems.
The research in this area can lead to predictive models for optimized irrigation
scheduling. Which is a good avenue for the integration of Precision Agriculture. This
investigates how smart irrigation can be integrated with other precision agriculture
technologies such as GPS-guided tractors and drones. This interdisciplinary research can
result in more holistic and efficient farming practices. Such as evaluating the
environmental impact of smart irrigation, including its effects on soil health, water
quality, and biodiversity. This research can inform sustainable farming practices. In
terms of Public Awareness and Education. The research can also be used to educate
farmers and the general public about the benefits of smart water irrigation and how to
effectively use these systems. Awareness campaigns can promote responsible water
usage. Studying ways to make smart irrigation technology more affordable and
accessible to small-scale farmers and growers.
This research can bridge the technology gap and promote inclusivity. Smart
water irrigation has the potential to revolutionize agriculture, enhance environmental
sustainability, and address pressing global challenges related to water resources and
food security. These implications highlight the importance of continued research and
innovation in this field.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The researchers would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to God for His
unwavering guidance, strength, and inspiration throughout this research. Without His
divine wisdom and blessings, this work would not have been possible. We are humbled
and thankful for the spiritual support that has sustained us during this journey.
FUNDING
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DECLARATIONS
Conflict of Interest
The authors declared that there is no interest in conflict associated with this
research.
Informed Consent
No direct, private personal information was used in the conduct of this research
Ethics Approval
As no private and personal information was used in the research, ethics approval
is not necessary.
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Authors’ Biography
Shiela Mae M. Orozco is the program head for the Bachelor of Science in Information
Technology at Northern Bukidnon State College, specializing in programming, game
development, Graphics design, Web development, and project management.
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