IEEE - 49239

Soil NPK and Moisture analysis using Wireless

Sensor Networks
1 2 3
Madhumathi R, Arumuganathan T, Shruthi R,
Department of Computer Science Principal Scientist, Department of Computer Science
and Engineering, Sugarcane Breeding Institute, and Engineering,
Sri Ramakrishna Engineering Coimbatore, India Sri Ramakrishna Engineering
College, Coimbatore, India Email: [email protected] College, Coimbatore, India
Email: [email protected] Email:[email protected]

Abstract — Agriculture plays a vital role in the economic produce increases. In order to increase productivity, it is
development of our country. Crop yield primarily depends essential to automate agricultural practices.
on soil fertility and moisture level. Fertilizers are normally The quality of crops must be maintained by adding adequate
recommended based on the nutrient present in the soil. To amount of fertilizers. The existing values of NPK in the soil
recommend a suitable fertilizer level, the soil nutrient decides the quantity of fertilizers to be added [1]. Soil
analysis is essential which is done mostly using laboratory parameter measurement is extremely essential for site-specific
techniques. Manual methods of measuring soil nutrients applications in the agricultural farm areas. Traditional farming
are time consuming. Many farmers refrain to perform soil is transforming into smart farming due to the prominence of
testing in the laboratory and grow the same crop in the land Internet of Things which imparts wireless technology, to
continuously, hence soil loses its fertility. A system has been measure various soil parameters [2,3]. With the advent of
proposed to adopt precision agriculture using Wireless technology, precision farming allows to meet the ongoing
demands for crops. Low cost and less manpower are the key
Sensor Networks, which enables remote monitoring of soil
factors which enhances the need for precision agriculture.
fertility and other parameters namely soil moisture, pH
Constant monitoring of NPK values along with pH,
and temperature. This data is transmitted to the cloud and temperature and humidity of soil maintains crop quality and
the corresponding values are displayed on a mobile facilitates farmers to increase their cultivation [4-7]. Existing
application. The proposed Internet of things (IoT) based systems provides results only for specific crops or lack
software system has the intelligence to recommend the measurement of certain parameters.
quantity of water and fertilizer which improves the quality
The prominent features of the proposed system are:
of the soil and ensures optimum growth of the crop.
1. An all-in-one real-time soil monitoring system supporting
Keywords - Soil Moisture, Sensors, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, all kinds of crops.
Potassium, Mobile Application 2. The soil macronutrients - Nitrogen, Phosphorous and
Potassium , and other soil properties namely moisture, pH
and temperature will be determined using sensor.
3. The system is integrated with Arduino and NodeMCU
I. INTRODUCTION (ESP8266) using Amazon Web Services (AWS) IoT
Agriculture is the origin for food production. Soil is a cloud for data storage.
precious resource in agriculture. The physical and chemical 4. A user-friendly mobile application is developed to display
conditions of soil play a major role in the production cycle. One soil information and the recommended quantity of
of the valuable tools for farmers to improve the crop fertilizers for different crops according to the level of
productivity is the soil analysis. In this regard, soil testing plays nutrients present in the soil.
a pivotal role for crop growth. Farmers can add organic or
This paper discusses the methodology and solution
inorganic nutrients to the soil in right proportion. Yield
maximization mainly depends on soil Macronutrients namely employed to solve the problem. Henceforth, we will discuss the
Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous(P) and Potassium(K). Over and results and how the mobile application helps to see the nutrient
under provisioning of the fertilizer can greatly decrease the values, pH, temperature and moisture of the soil in real-time
production rate and results in inferior quality of agricultural and suggest the required amount of fertilizers for the desired
products. As population increases, the demands for agricultural crop.

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II. RELATED WORK

Soil Moisture NodeMCU
The soil parameters like temperature, moisture, pH, humidity Sensor
and light are monitored using various sensors [8]. The values
obtained are converted to digital using an Analog to Digital
Converter and serially sent to the cloud through a Raspberry pi.
Finally, the output is displayed in the laptop or in a mobile Amazon
NPK Tester Arduino
application. The system supervises the overall soil Web
Micro-
characteristics with the aid of IoT [9-10]. In order to maintain Service
controller
efficient crop productivity, soil parameters namely: pH level,
soil moisture, temperature and humidity are continuously Soil
monitored using sensors. A system is designed where the Temperature
fertility of soil is improved, and the quality of the soil can be Sensor
increased by the development of optical transducer [11]. The
amounts of NPK are obtained as low, medium and high. An Soil pH
Arduino microcontroller is used for data acquisition and the
analog output is converted to digital.
Sensor

A system is designed where a microcontroller-based device

is connected to the EC sensor, pH sensor and a color sensor Figure.1 Block Diagram of the Proposed System
[12]. The values are read from the sensors and transmitted to a
mobile application over Bluetooth serial communication. A AWS is a cloud platform, which enables developers to
system used for the detection of the soil parameters and the pH create, deploy and manage applications on the cloud quickly
level with the aid of artificial neural networks and image and easily. AWS cloud resources are accessible with proper
processing techniques respectively was proposed [13]. The security. Cost efficiency, reliability, storage, speed, backup,
method involved in this system consists of the usage of a color recovery and easy accessibility are the benefits of AWS cloud.
recognition method in order to develop a soil nutrient analyzer Further, a mobile application is developed which provides
and to determine pH. information about the various characteristics of the soil and
using this information, the farmer would make the right
III. PROPOSED SYSTEM decision in growing the appropriate crop.
The proposed system monitors the soil characteristics like B. Soil moisture sensor
soil moisture, nutrients, pH and soil temperature in real-time
In order to measure the volumetric water content in the soil,
using various hardware and software components. This
the soil moisture sensor is used. The soil properties like
recommends the required quantity of fertilizers which would
electrical resistance or the dielectric constant is determined
assist farmers for better crop production by helping them to
based on which the soil moisture is measured. The soil moisture
make the right decision in applying the fertilizers and ensure
sensor contains two probes. The moisture value is obtained by
optimum crop growth.
inserting these probes into the soil. The data obtained from the
A. Methodology sensor acts as a support system for farmers to manage the
irrigation system more effectively. The specifications of the
The main aim is to analytically view the moisture and
moisture sensor are mentioned in table 1.
nutrients of the soil. Figure 1 explains the block diagram of the
proposed system where different sensors are connected using TABLE 1. SPECIFICATIONS OF SOIL MOISTURE SENSOR
the Arduino microcontroller and ESP8266 Wi-Fi module. The
Node MCU is connected to the Arduino via Tx and Rx pins for
Sensor Model FC28
transmission and receival of sensor data. The data from the
sensors are sent to the AWS cloud. AWS IoT offers device Range 0-1023
SDK’s for transmitting the sensor data. MQTT connection is Soil Probe Dimension 6cm×3cm
provided for sensing devices by AWS IoT which allows users
to connect these devices to the Internet for processing and PCB Dimension 3cm×1.5cm
exchanging data which ensures data security and maintains Input Voltage 3.3- 5V
reliability. Wireless Sensor Networks consists of embedded
devices which are connected to empower several facilities for Output Signal Analog
measurement at low power and minimized effort.

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Figure 2 displays the hardware integration of the soil

moisture sensor. Figures 3 and 4 show the screenshot of the app
and in figure 4 the moisture value of the soil stored in the
database is displayed. Similarly, the values of nitrogen,
phosphorous, potassium, pH and temperature are displayed in
the mobile application.
C. NPK tester
In order to measure the quantity of nitrogen, phosphorus and
potassium present in the soil, the soil fertility tester is used.
The use of the above elements are as follows:
Nitrogen – Helps in promoting the growth of foliage and
Figure.2. Working Model of Soil Moisture Sensor vegetation. It plays a major role in photosynthesis and protein
production.
Phosphorus – Helps in promoting the growth of roots and
survive unpleasant climate.
Potassium – Helps in promoting fruiting, flowering and
translocation of sugars.
The soil fertility tester must be implanted in the soil. A
chemical reaction would take place, resulting in a change in the
analog deflection voltage which is then converted to a digital
value.
The formula below can be used to obtain the N, P and K
values:[1]

(Av − Ncurr_low ) × (Ntgt_upp − Ntgt_low )

Nm = + Ntgt_low (1)
(Ncurr_up − Ncurr_low )

Here
Nm – Measured Nitrogen (in ppm)
Av – Analog voltage measured by the sensor
Figure.3. Main frame in mobile application development Ncurr_low – Lower bound of value’s current range
Ncurr_upp – Upper bound of value’s current range
Ntgt_low – Lower bound of value’s target range
Ntgt_upp – Upper bound of value’s target range
Similarly, the P and K values can be calculated using the
above formula.
D. Soil temperature sensor
In order to measure the temperature of the soil, the soil
temperature sensor is used. These sensors have a variety of
designs using thermocouples and thermistors. The voltage
reading across the diode shows the working base of the sensor.
The sensors transmit electrical signals which are converted into
various units of measurement like Celsius, Kelvin and
Fahrenheit. The voltage differences are amplified, and an
analog signal is generated by the device which is directly
proportional to temperature. The specifications of soil
temperature sensor are listed in table 2.
TABLE 2. SPECIFICATIONS OF SOIL TEMPERATURE SENSOR

Figure.4. Moisture content in a mobile application

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 IEEE - 49239

Sensor Model DS18B20

Range -55°C to +125°C.
Accuracy ±0.5°C
Cable length 36 inches

E. Soil pH sensor
The pH value in soil determines whether the soil is acidic or
basic in nature. The pH value of the soil influences the
availability of nutrients and microorganisms. The range of the
pH value is between 0 to 14, where 7 indicates neutral. The pH
value less than 5.5, indicates strong acidity, pH value less than
6.5 indicates moderate acidity, pH value from 6.5 to 7.5
indicates neutral, pH above 7.5 indicates alkalinity and pH
above 8.5 indicates strong alkalinity. An electrical potential
difference is obtained between a pH electrode and a reference
electrode, which is used for displaying the pH value. The Fig 5. Moisture value shown in Arduino IDE
specifications of soil pH sensor are listed in table 3.
TABLE 3. SPECIFICATIONS OF SOIL pH SENSOR
Percentage of moisture for different samples
Range 0 to 14 94
100 90
Number of samples 5 to 10 samples per acre 90
80 75
Operating Environment −40oC to 50oC
Soil Moisture (%)
70 64
Response time <= 1 minute 60
50
40
The NodeMCU communicates with Arduino Uno through 30
pins 10 and 11 and the data is serially sent to the AWS IoT 20
cloud. The mobile application developed using the Android 10
Studio would focus on the front-end development tools like UI 0
design tools and AWS Mobile SDK. The desired API’s are Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Sample 4
provided to access the sensor data. Soil Samples
Fig 6. Percentage of soil moisture for different samples
IV. RESULTS
TABLE 4. NUTRIENT VALUES FOR DIFFERENT SAMPLES
The output for various soil parameters for different soil
samples are obtained through this system and the recommended Sample Nitrogen Phosphorous Potassium
quantity of fertilizers are suggested which minimizes the usage (N) (P) (K)
of excess fertilizers thereby, maximizing the yield. With the 1 Low Medium Low
development of technology, accurate results are obtained which
2 Medium Low Low
increases the cultivation. Thus, precision agriculture makes
farming practices more precise by providing real-time 3 Low High Medium
responsive data. 4 High Medium Medium
Figures 5 illustrates the results of the soil moisture obtained
from the sensor and figure 6 shows the graphical representation
about the percentage of soil moisture present in the sample. TABLE 5. FERTILIZER RANGE FOR NITROGEN IN SOIL

Fertility Rating for Nitrogen

Levels Range
Low 0 – 280Kg/ha
Medium 280 – 450 kg/ha
High >450 kg/ha

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TABLE 6. FERTILIZER RANGE FOR PHOSPHORUS IN SOIL micro-nutrients like copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum
Fertility Rating for Phosphorus and zinc are also required which impacts the yield. The
Levels Range system can be expanded to measure these factors with proper
integration of other additional components along with proper
Low 0 – 11kg P/ha
specifications.
Medium 11 – 22 kg P/ha
High >22 kg P/ha ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors sincerely thank the Science and Engineering
TABLE 7. FERTILIZER RANGE FOR POTASSIUM IN SOIL Research Board (SERB) of DST for the financial support, the
Director, ICAR- SBI, Coimbatore, and the Management and
Fertility Rating for Potassium Principal of Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College,
Levels Range Coimbatore for extending the required facilities for this
Low 0 – 118kg K/ha study.
Medium 118 – 280 kg K/ha
High >280kg K/ha
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