Real-time soil monitoring and irrigation system for taro yam cultivation

The yam cultivation industry faces hurdles in satisfying the world’s rising demand. Meanwhile,  agricultural activities encounter   issues such as monitoring systems for soil composition that are not directly integrated with the irrigation system. Hence, this research aims to develop an irrigation and soil monitoring system using NodeMcu ESP8266 for taro yam cultivation. A soil  composition and irrigation device weredeveloped using NodeMcu ESP8266 to control the irrigation system autonomously. Then, the real-time monitoring systems using Blynk 2.0 was designed. The final method is used to test the irrigation and soil monitoring system in a taro yam growing area. The results  show  that  the irrigation  and  soil  monitoring system reduced water  usage  by  about  32.5%,  as  the  3.6  liters  of  water  used  daily  before applying the irrigation and soil monitoring device was reduced to 2.43 liters per  day. In conclusion,  the  developed  device  can conveniently  display the ambient  air’s  humidity,  temperature, and soil moisture conditions  on smartphones   and   desktops. In addition, this system can maintain soil moisture according to a set value, which can prevent excessive water use for taro yam cultivation.