Making technological innovations accessible to agricultural water management: Design of a low-cost wireless sensor network for drip irrigation monitoring in Tunisia

• Published in: Smart agricultural technology Vol. 4; p. 100227
• Main Authors: Vandôme, Paul, Leauthaud, Crystele, Moinard, Simon, Sainlez, Oliver, Mekki, Insaf, Zairi, Abdelaziz, Belaud, Gilles
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.08.2023; Elsevier
• Subjects: Agricultural water management; Drip irrigation monitoring; Environmental Sciences; Internet of things (IoT); LoRa network; Low cost soil moisture sensor; Wireless sensor network; Wireless sensor network; Drip irrigation monitoring; LoRa network; Agricultural water management; Low cost soil moisture sensor; Internet of things (IoT)
• DOI: 10.1016/j.atech.2023.100227
• ISSN: 2772-3755

•We developed a low-cost, low-tech, low-energy, open-source iot-based soil moisture sensor.•Both in-field and in-lab single parameter calibration methods are possible.•The sensor is usable as a decision-support tool for real-time irrigation monitoring.•Do it yourself: all the steps from design to calibration are highly reproducible.•Open source data is available for download. Unsustainable use of water resources and climate change will exacerbate the existing tensions surrounding resources, especially in the Mediterranean context. Despite investments in costly modern equipment, the performance of irrigated agriculture remains below expectations, notably because of the lack of available water data and the limited use of decision support tools. Although a variety of soil moisture sensors are available on the market, they are not widely used by the agricultural community because of their high cost and complexity. Access to information at an unprecedented level, via easily accessible low-cost and low-tech sensors, may be a major lever for improved identification of achievable gains in performance, and to guide actors toward efficient water management. To explore this hypothesis, an open source wireless soil moisture sensor, low-energy and economically and technically accessible, was developed. The tool was designed according to water users’ requirements and applied to a Tunisian irrigation scheme subject to major water use efficiency issues. The functioning of the wireless sensor network was tested on pilot plots over a growing season and compared with commercial sensors. A single parameter calibration can be performed in either the laboratory or the field. This low-cost sensor can be used for real-time irrigation monitoring and as a decision-making tool for water management.