Integrated Multi-Parameter Soil Sensor Technology for Continuous Real-Time Plant Health Analysis

Due to increasing importance of precision agriculture and sustainable development, the advancement of agricultural technologies has gained much importance. One of the biggest achievements in smart agriculture is efficient and accurate monitoring of soil conditions as this directly affect the crop growth and yield. This paper presents an experimental setup of data collection and real-time monitoring of the plants using a seven-in-one soil sensor. This sensor uses the Internet of Things based technology for monitoring seven soil parameters - moisture, temperature, electrical-conductivity, soil pH, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium levels in a single sensor device. Such an integrated sensor system has provided significant advantage over the traditional methods using multiple individual sensors to monitor the soil health. Moreover, it enhances the precision of soil parameters monitoring by ensuring that all measurements are taken from same location unlike using different soil sensors for measuring different soil parameters. The data collected from the sensor is transmitted to a cloud platform in wireless mode where it can be further analyzed. This will help farmers to monitor their crop from any remote location and make wise decisions. Trials on different real home plants were done to evaluate the performance and reliability of the system. The results proved the system’s ability to provide accurate and timely data regarding soil health, leading to better and smart agricultural practices.