Smart Irrigation for Horticulture
Agriculture today faces serious challenges due to inefficient irrigation practices, water scarcity, and lack of real-time field data. Most farmers still depend on manual or fixed-time irrigation methods, which often lead to over-irrigation, water wastage, increased energy consumption, and uneven crop growth. The absence of affordable and easy-to-use smart irrigation solutions for small and medium farmers highlights the need for a technology-driven system that ensures efficient water management.
IRRIGROW uses an Arduino Uno and NodeMCU ESP8266 to collect real-time data from soil moisture, temperature, humidity, and light sensors inside the greenhouse. Based on soil moisture levels, the system automatically controls the water pump to irrigate plants when required. An exhaust fan helps regulate the greenhouse environment.
Through the development of IRRIGROW, we gained practical knowledge of IoT-based system design, sensor integration, microcontroller programming, and automated irrigation. We learned to use Arduino Uno and NodeMCU ESP8266 for sensor data collection, Firebase Realtime Database for cloud data storage, and MIT App Inventor for mobile application development. We also understood how environmental monitoring and automated control can improve greenhouse management.