Farm Moisture Sensors:-

Soil Moisture Sensors in Agriculture

Any farmer will tell you that the conditions of the soil change constantly throughout the growing season.  The soil conditions are influenced by the weather, row density, crop patterns, and more. During this period, the plants are continuously changing and adapting to the environment. The plant’s roots and shoots grow in soil most advantageous to growth. 

To help farmers adjust to these ever-changing conditions, soil and water sensors are being employed. In the past, farmers collected soil and water conditions from the field by scouting and collecting soil and plant samples. These samples were sent off to a lab for testing, taking maybe precious weeks for results. 

Today, because of recent developments in soil and water monitoring, the critical information is being received in real-time measurements from the field, helping farmers make faster, more accurate crop production decisions.

Farmers are now using sensors to monitor particular sectors of the field, enabling them to react quickly to changes in the land and crops. The use of smaller and less-complex sensors is making quick response possible. This allows farmers to turn soil sensor readings, weather, and historical crop data into actionable perception by seeing the bigger picture.

Soil is never consistent across a field and this inconsistency is often amplified at the sensor level. Multiple sensors can statistically improve the accuracy and track the active changes, which are variable across a field. A wet area in the spring may become dry later as the crop grows and uses up the water. Sensor-based measurements are providing more specifics, such as moisture levels, fertilizer effectiveness, and plant reaction to variable conditions, including temperature and light. These sensor measurements permit farmers to take action when a field condition, such as low water levels, produces a stress reaction.

Soil moisture sensors estimate the volume of water content based on the dielectric constant of the soil. The dielectric constant indicates the soil's capability to transmit electricity. As the water content of the soil increases, the dielectric constant of the soil increases, because the dielectric constant of water is much larger than the other soil components, including air. Therefore, the measurement of the dielectric constant gives a predictable assessment of water content.

Soil measure probe by Teralytic 

 

Most soil sensors are single-point sensors. They take a measurement at a single location. A single point sensor can measure soil moisture and temperature, or soil moisture, temperature and salinity. The sensor can be completely buried in the soil. Some sensors measure volumetric water content for the length of the sensor.

Edaphic Scientific soil moisture and temperature sensor

Profiling probes measure soil moisture across a vertical soil profile, covering a range of one foot to four feet. Soil profiling probes comprise of multiple single-point sensors contained in an elongated enclosure.  Some, like the GroPoint Profile include modular segments which form a single antenna for constant measurement across its entire length. 

Stevens GroPoint Profiling Probe

It’s important to measure soil moisture at multiple depths in order to optimize irrigation, as it indicates the penetration of water all through the root zone. The main benefit of using a soil profiling probe is the reduction of costs of installing multiple single-point sensors, and the requirement to dig a large hole to bury them at the proper depths.

Profiling probes are typically manufactured as parallel pairs of rings along a probe, and are normally installed in plastic or PVC access tubes where the electric field between the sensor and the soil must pass through the tube. Profiling probes, which don’t entail an access tube, will deliver greater accuracy. The GroPoint Profile and Hydrascout HSTi are examples.

The HydraSCOUT™ probe from Hydra Sensor Technologies International Ltd

 

Sensors that measure the volumetric water content are typically referred to as soil moisture sensors. Soil volumetric water content sensors measure the water content of soil. These sensors can be used to estimate the amount of stored water in a profile or how much irrigation is required to reach a desired amount of water in the soil. These sensors can be used for quick measurements or installed for long-term measurements.

Volumetric water content is a measure of the amount of water held in a soil expressed as a percentage of the total mixture, and is often called simply “soil moisture”. The amount of water that can be stored by a soil and its availability to plants both depend on soil type.

Campbell Scientific soil moisture profile sensor

Tensiometers (Soil Matric Potential Sensors) measure the soil water potential or matric potential. Soil matric potential is the pressure it takes to extract water from the soil and is a gauge of stress to plants and crops. It is utilized to ascertain soil water changes and available water held in the soil. As the soil dries out, water is extracted out through the porous ceramic tip, producing a partial vacuum within the tensiometer which is read on the vacuum gauge. When the soil is wetted by adequate rainfall or irrigation, water flows back into the tensiometer, the vacuum lessens and the gauge reading drops.

Metter group T4 Tensiometer 

 

Soil sensors are permanently buried and are left for continuous long-term monitoring if they are connected to a data logger, or wireless remote telemetry, or on-demand monitoring using a handheld reader. They can remain buried indefinitely, depending on the durability of the sensor and the cable. Portable soil sensors provide the user an instantaneous reading of soil moisture in a battery-powered, self-contained unit that can be carried anywhere. Readings are shown on an integrated display, or on the user’s smartphone, which communicates with the sensor unit through Bluetooth or WiFi.

The amount of moisture or soil water is important to know because soil water performs as a carrier of food nutrients needed for plant growth. Soil water is a nutrient by itself. The yield of a crop is most often influenced by the amount of water available rather than the deficit of other food nutrients. Water regulates soil temperatures. Microorganisms require water for their metabolic activities, while helping in the chemical and biological activities of the soil. Finally, water is essential for photosynthesis. Therefore, soil moisture sensors are critical for Agriculture.

The current agriculture industry challenges

Agriculture is rightfully considered to be one of the most resource and labor intensive industries. The challenges farmers face today include, but aren’t limited to the following:

Regular equipment maintenance

Agriculture as an industry is heavily dependent on machinery. Maintenance operations, even scheduled regularly, consume time and impact the budget; but nevertheless, fail to eliminate the unpredictability factor. Once a piece of equipment accidentally goes out of order, it usually leads to unexpected downtimes.

Correct water estimates

Growing plants need water, but the amounts of it differ depending on soil humidity levels. To measure these levels, farmers have to go to the field and take regular manual tests – alternatively, they could use smart sensing technology, which is by far, more accurate, convenient, and time efficient.

Eliminating water waste and overhead expenses

Failing to collect accurate soil humidity information may result in the underwatering or overwatering of the plants. Poorly watered plants are dry and frail, but overwatering creates water waste and involves unpredicted water expenses.

Estimating correct planting times

Each plant has its own optimal planting time depending on a range of environmental factors. However, it is often difficult to correctly estimate this time without accurate data.

Measuring soil temperature and moisture levels

Soil temperature and moisture levels are key metrics farmers need to collect to estimate the state of crops and take appropriate action. Unfortunately, it’s usually impossible to measure them correctly without IoT agriculture monitoring systems.

Pest control

Successful pest control involving detecting pests, their location, activity and behavior patterns is another challenge farmers have to face. Understandably, this challenge is also quite difficult to meet without IoT based pest control systems.

Smart agriculture monitoring solutions

IBM predicts, the use of IoT will enable farmers to increase production rates by 70% by the end of 2050, so, all in all, the future looks optimistic. One way or the other, IoT has a lot to offer in terms of alleviating the pains farmers regularly face.

Agritech is a thriving industry, and, as of today, an extensive range of smart farming systems enables farmers to meet their daily challenges. Planting, watering, crop gathering and pest control – agriculture field monitoring collects a range of metrics farmers can act on to manage these tasks effectively. 

Below are some examples of smart agriculture monitoring solutions and how they work.

Soil condition monitoring

Soil condition is an important indicator helping farmers decide on the optimal planting, and crop gathering time. With IoT sensors performing soil condition monitoring, farmers get instantly alerted of soil moisture and salinity. Other metrics include soil temperature and air temperature: estimating them correctly enables farmers to plan watering times and know when to expect pests. 

Soil condition monitoring requires a combination of hardware and software systems to operate in real-time and alert users on any significant changes.

An example of such a solution is CropX – an ag-tech platform for agriculture remote monitoring. It uses smart agriculture sensors to collect data, and a cloud infrastructure for data processing and storage to deliver information in a readable format to a user’s computer or smartphone screen.

Weather monitoring

Weather monitoring in agriculture is one of the most frequent application fields for IoT. In crop farming, yields are heavily dependent on the environment, which is inherently volatile. Weather monitoring solutions located directly in the field (such as the ones used by weather stations), alert farmers on changing weather conditions – temperature, precipitation, humidity, sun radiation, and wind speed.

Weather monitoring platforms like Pycno, allMETEO, and Smart Element are vivid examples of how the application of smart sensing technology in agriculture helps deliver effective weather notifications directly to farmers’ laptops and smartphones, enabling them to immediately take action. 

Greenhouse automation systems

A fragile and sensitive greenhouse ecosystem requires incessant maintenance and control. Smart agriculture solutions for greenhouse automation like Growlink, Farmapp, and GreenIQ illustrate the application of remote sensing in agriculture. They help maintain optimal microclimate conditions and manage lighting, humidity, CO2 and temperature levels. Instant alerts and increased management capabilities maximize the efficiency of greenhouse farming. 

Crop monitoring systems

As crops grow and ripen, so many things can go wrong: diseases, infestations with pests, or adverse environmental conditions can potentially cause irrevocable harm before farmers even notice. Applied in crop monitoring, smart sensing technology collects metrics about the state of the crops (temperature, humidity, health indicators) and enables farmers take timely measures should anything go wrong.

Moreover, systems like Semios and Arable help detect when the crop is ripe, enabling farmers to plan exact harvesting times.

Digital pest management

Pest infestations are some of the pains crop farmers face on a regular basis. Knowing when pests arrive can be challenging, but also pinpointing their activity and location is normally impossible without making frequent trips to the field. Smart agriculture monitoring systems tackle these problems; moreover, they also help allocate the exact amount of chemicals needed to eliminate pests in each particular case.

IoT pest detection systems like Strider count insects and determine their locations in real-time using an insect camera and sensors for crop pest detection placed directly in the field. Ag-tech companies like Fieldin and DTN offer similar solutions for IoT-based pest control.

Livestock monitoring systems

Apart from crop and weather monitoring, agriculture monitoring solutions are also gaining wider application in livestock farming. By combining sophisticated IoT hardware such as wearables based on smart-sensing technology with state-of-the art IoT software, ag-tech solutions like Cowlar help guard and protect livestock.

SCR is another company specializing in agriculture remote monitoring using cow neck collars to track cow health, location, and activity. Remote sensing in agriculture, combined with advanced analytical software delivers insights on cow nutrition and on the health of the entire herd. 

End-to-end farm management systems 

From greenhouses to grazing fields, the entire farm area can accommodate smart agriculture sensors acting as important data collecting points for a powerful, all-encompassing farm management system. Surely, such systems should leverage advanced data analytics software and integrate seamlessly with accounting and procurement databases to deliver insights and fully unveil their analytical potential.

Cropio and Farmlogs are examples of companies offering end-to-end agritech solutions for remote farm management based on IoT agriculture monitoring.

The Benefits of using IoT monitoring solutions in agriculture

So, how does monitoring and recording data improve agriculture? The range of agriculture remote monitoring applications is quite extensive, and so is their combined effect on livestock and crop farming.

All in all, the use of IoT monitoring solutions accounts for the following:

Maximized productivity

Agriculture crop monitoring using IoT and taking timely measures to eliminate the usual threats increases crop yields. In livestock farming, the use of IoT monitoring also makes for maximized productivity.

Improved quality

IoT monitoring systems help maintain optimal conditions to ensure better crop quality. For example, weather monitoring in agriculture helps estimate the exact supply of water, chemicals, and nutrients needed to grow high-quality crop yields. The farming products grown using IoT monitoring systems are also more capable of meeting market specifications than other products.

Reduced need for pesticides

Not only are pesticides toxic, their use also entails expenses. Smart pest monitoring systems significantly reduce the need for pesticides, the expenses involved, and the dangerous impact of chemicals on the environment and human health.

Predictability and control

Driven by realtime agriculture monitoring, data analytics predict the optimal harvest dates and ensure the security of supply contracts. The control farmers gain over time-to-market helps make farm processes more manageable.

Higher sales price

Obviously, greener, healthier products grown using the latest ag-technologies will have higher sales prices, and will ultimately bring more revenue. 

Futurecasting

By collecting and processing data retrieved using smart agriculture monitoring, farmers can predict the future state of soils and environments, and plan for next year’s crops. Thus, predictive analytics enable them to make calculated farm-management decisions and plan for the years ahead.

First steps in developing IoT monitoring solutions

Not every out-of-the-box smart farming solution will suit your individual needs. Sometimes an optimal IoT software for each particular farm has to be custom-made. So what is the best way to approach agtech solutions development?

The path from realizing the importance of IoT agriculture monitoring towards the implementation of smart agriculture solutions  encompasses the 5 consequent steps:

1. Define your goals and purposes

Every farm has sensitive areas which need monitoring: If you live in an extremely dry climate, soil humidity monitoring could be your primary goal. The key goals you want to achieve will ultimately determine everything  – from the sensor’s structure to the software architecture of your IoT solution.

2. Decide on the data transfer technology

Smart agriculture monitoring is all about collecting insights from data, but the data you collect on-site has to be sent to a processing unit. The choice of the data transfer technology will depend on the distance the data has to travel.

For example, if it’s only about 10 meters, the data could be perfectly transferable by Bluetooth. If the distance is several kilometers, the use of a low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) could be more appropriate. 

3. Determine the key power sources

The data travel distance is also important because it directly impacts the IoT sensor’s battery life. You can manage power consumption by regulating the frequency of data transfers, or transfer fewer amounts of data. One way or the other, power consumption and power sources will require preliminary estimations.

4. Estimate the frequency of data collection

Power usage and sensor life will also depend on the frequency of data collection. How frequently does the data you need have to be collected in order to deliver value?

5. Consider sensor installation specifics

The installation of sensors could require complex manipulations or be relatively simple depending on their location. This is yet another important aspect you will have to discuss with your IoT solutions provider.

An advanced IoT based agriculture monitoring system reduces costs, maximizes efficiency, helps farmers make data driven decisions, and, ultimately, propels crop and livestock farming practices to higher levels of ethics and professionalism. Although, implementing smart monitoring systems requires time and investment, in the long run it usually proves worth the effort.

Developing custom agriculture monitoring solutions is an intricate process, often requiring expert advice. Feel free to contact our expert team now for a free consultation on the development and implementation of smart agriculture monitoring systems.

Plant needs four things to survive: light, water, soil and air. However, to raise healthy plants, the most important element is the effect of water. Water is crucial in regard to relative humidity.   

Relative humidity is a measure of how much water the air can hold at any given temperature. This means that say the air is at 60% humidity at 20 degrees, then the air is at 60% of its total moisture capacity for that temperature.

Measuring air and temperature moisture can make or break your agricultural operation. So, it’s vital to get it right.

Humidity and temperature go hand-in-hand when it comes to raising crops in a greenhouse. Partially because imbalances in either can often give similar results.

Plants are, by nature, responsive to their environments. Furthermore, plants depend on a certain set of air conditions to survive. This is primarily due to their need to respire.

Respiration in plants is the process of water leaving the leaves through evaporation via the stomata on the underside of the leaves.

Stomata are tiny openings, usually in the surface of a plant’s leaves, which allow for the regulation of gas exchanges and moisture regulation during photosynthesis.

How can high humidity and temperature affect agriculture?

Imbalances in humidity can affect this process. For example, if humidity levels are too high then there’s nowhere for the evaporating water from the stomata to go, the air is already saturated.

This means that, despite having the stomata constantly open, the plant fails to respire and can essentially drown in a soup of trapped CO2 and water. The plant failing altogether is obviously the worst-case scenario here but at best this will still result in stunted growth in the plant due to an inability to conduct its everyday processes.

Additionally, crops are more susceptible to a variety of diseases, fungus and parasites that thrive in humid conditions.

High temperature has similar effects in terms of influencing the stomata, though it can have the opposite effect.

At high temperatures, with low relative humidity, plants tend to close their stomata in order to preserve water. However, warm air is more capable of holding larger volumes of moisture, meaning that the combination of high relative humidity and high temperature can be lethal.

How can low humidity and temperature affect agriculture?

Once again, low humidity affects those all-important stomata. Air with low levels of relative humidity can cause plants to close their stomata, in an attempt to conserve water, much like the effects of high temperature.

In tandem with this is the effect of cold air, which is less capable of retaining moisture. Cold temperatures also cause many plants to stunt their growth as a self-protection mechanism, much like the effects of winter when most plants lose their leaves and lie dormant.

Imbalances in either temperature or humidity can have a roster of detrimental effects upon plants and potentially cause whole crops to be wasted.

Monitoring heat and humidity

Thankfully there are ways to observe and prevent these imbalances.