Solução de irrigação baseada em Internet das Coisas para pequenas propriedades rurais

Abstract

The expected population growth for the coming decades will significantly increase the demand for food in the world. For this demand to be met, it will be necessary for rural properties to improve the efficiency of their production processes. One of the factors that hinder agricultural productions from being more efficient are the long periods of drought that reach them at some point in their production process, or even the precipitation below the need of the crop profile, causing losses in production. Artificially irrigating these productive areas becomes necessary to supply water deficiency in the soil, but the application of water must be carried out in the most rational way possible, due to the problem of water scarcity in some regions of the planet. The Internet’s premise of things adding extra skills to common objects allows the creation of smart applications in the field of precision farming. The present work presented an autonomous solution of soil irrigation, parametrizable, monitoring soil moisture, local microclimate variables and, in the connectivity availability of the wireless sensor network of the solution to the internet, integration with an API of a meteorological center with the intention of recovering the rain forecast for the region of the rural property where the solution was implanted. The possibility of parameterization of the solution allowed it to become flexible for different types of crops with different humidity requirements. Moisture monitoring alone allowed the solution, according to the parameterization, to trigger and interrupt irrigation at appropriate times. Sensitization of the local microclimate and integration with the meteorological center allowed for a more rational use of water, interrupting irrigation in the presence of rain and irrigating the possible minima when a rain forecast was identified that would reach the region of the agricultural area soon.