IoT-Based Automated Irrigation System Using Soil Moisture and Humidity Sensing

Objective: To design and implement a real-time IoT system for automated irrigation utilizing soil moisture and environmental humidity sensors to optimize water usage in Indian agriculture.

Indian agriculture faces significant challenges due to irregular rainfall, inefficient irrigation practices, and scarcity of water resources. Small and marginal farmers, who make up a majority of the agricultural community, are particularly affected by water wastage and lack of real-time crop monitoring, resulting in reduced yields and increased costs.

This project proposes an IoT-enabled smart agriculture system that continuously monitors soil moisture and environmental humidity through distributed sensors. The system processes this data on an embedded microcontroller (such as ESP32), automatically actuating irrigation pumps and valves based on threshold logic, and uploads real-time data to a cloud dashboard accessible on smartphones.

Key deliverables include a fully functional prototype with live soil and humidity sensors, relay-driven pump control, GSM/Wi-Fi-based remote alerts, a web/mobile dashboard, and integration with IS 14220:2018 micro-irrigation standards. The working model demonstrates autonomous irrigation, real-time monitoring, and manual override capabilities, validated on test plots or simulated fields.

Wider adoption of this system can improve water conservation, reduce manual labor, and enhance crop yields, making Indian agriculture more sustainable and resilient. The scalable architecture allows future integration of additional sensors (temperature, pH, NPK) and AI-driven analytics for broader industry impact.