A technology review and field testing of a soil water quality monitoring system

Soil water quality is one of the most influential factors in ensuring the productivity of agricultural farms. Soil water quality and soil quality are hugely dependent on each other. Hence, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the essential soil quality parameters and the existing technologies to detect those parameters. This paper briefly discusses the vital soil quality parameters for their significance towards fostering sustainable agriculture. Moreover, a technology review of recent studies has been critically analyzed, and their strengths and weaknesses have been addressed. Moreover, an Internet of Things (IoT)- enabled low-cost, low-power soil monitoring system has been proposed to overcome the drawbacks of the existing technologies. The initially developed system has been deployed in a residential garden for preliminary testing and results. However, the findings of the proposed system satisfy the expected outcome as the testing soil parameters, such as soil moisture content and temperature, vary accordingly with the increase in depth underneath the surface. Also, environmental parameters such as ambient temperature, carbon dioxide and humidity vary expectedly over day and night. Data obtained from this system will be beneficial to derive realistic water-balance estimations and sustainable agriculture decision-making.