Wireless Sensor Network for Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

Precision agriculture can be defined as the science of using technology to improve the agricultural production. It is advisable for farmers to use a decision support system; in fact, real– time monitoring of climatic conditions is the only way to know the water needed by a cultivation. On the other hand, since the 1990s, a strong decrease of the Mediterranean Quercus has been observed in the pastures of southwestern Spain and Portugal, causing a high mortality of holm and cork oak trees. Among the factors associated with this decrease, the radical decomposition caused by Phytophthora Cinnamomi is remarkable for its gravity, which makes it necessary to reforest the trees and to monitor the microclimatic factors that have an influence on this regeneration. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are a technology in full evolution and development, as well as their appropriate use in cultivations that help to implement ecological techniques. With these considerations in this work five units/nodes with one or more sensors that allow different environmental readings have been developed. In this work, the acquisition of data obtained from different sensors has been achieved, allowing the monitoring of climatic elements such as soil moisture, air quality, temperature and humidity, rainfall intensity, precipitation level, wind speed and direction, luminous flux and atmospheric pressure. A web page has been designed where the user can consult the climatic conditions of the cultivation or reforestation. Different devices interconnected with a central unit have been developed where measurements of the cultivation are sent for its later analysis by the farmer. The microclimatic data acquisition developed in the WSN proposed in this paper allows a farmer to make decisions about the irrigation of the cultivation, use of fertilizers, the development and maturation phases of the cultivated products, obtaining the optimum stages of cultivation and harvesting.