FPGA-Embedded Smart Monitoring System for Irrigation Decisions Based on Soil Moisture and Temperature Sensors

The basic need common to all living beings is water. Less than 1% of the water on earth is fresh water and water use is increasing daily. Agricultural practices alone require huge amounts of water. The drip technique improved the efficiency of water use in irrigation and initiated the introduction and development of fertigation, the integrated distribution of water and fertilizer. The past few decades have seen extensive research being carried out in the area of development and evaluation of different technologies available to estimate/measure soil moisture to aid in various applications and to facilitate the use of drip irrigation for users and farmers. In this technology, plant moisture and temperature are accurately monitored and controlled in real time over roots in the form of droplets, by developing smart monitoring system to save water and avoid water waste using drip irrigation technology. Water is delivered to the roots drop by drop, which saves water as well as prevents plants from being flooded and decaying due to excess water released by irrigation methods such as flood irrigation, border irrigation, furrow irrigation, and control basin irrigation. Drip irrigation with an embedded intelligent monitoring system is one of the most valuable techniques used to save water and farmers’ time and energy. In this paper, we design an embedded monitoring system based in the integrated 65 nm CMOS technology in agricultural practices which would facilitate agriculture and enable farmers to monitor crops. Hence, to demonstrate the feasibility, a prototype was constructed and simulated with modelsim and validated with nclaunch the both tools from Cadence, as well as implementation on the FPGA board, was be performed.

Irrigation Supply and Demand, Land Use/Cover Change and Future Projections of Climate, in Indus Basin Irrigation System, Pakistan

Sustainable management of canal water through optimum water allocation is the need of the modern world due to the rapid rise in water demand and climatic variations. The present research was conducted at the Chaj Doab, Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS) of Pakistan, using the WEAP (Water Evaluation and Planning) model. Six different scenarios were developed, and the results showed that the current available surface water is not sufficient to meet crop water demands. The Lower Jhelum Canal (LJC) command area is more sensitive to water scarcity than the Upper Jhelum Canal (UJC). The future (up to 2070) climate change scenarios for RCP 4.5 and 8.5 showed a decrease in catchment reliability up to 26.80 and 26.28% for UJC as well as 27.56 and 27.31% for LJC catchment, respectively. We concluded that scenario 3 (irrigation efficiency improvement through implementation of a high efficiency irrigation system, canal lining, reduction and replacement of high delta crops with low delta crops) was sufficient to reduce the canal water deficit in order to optimize canal water allocation. Improvement in the irrigation system and cropping area should be optimized for efficient canal water management.

Effect of Sprinkler and Basin Irrigation Systems on Yield and Water Use Efficiency of Canola Crop

An experiment was conducted to assess the yield potential and Water Use Efficiency (WUE) of Canola crop grown under sprinkler and basin irrigation techniques on a clay loam soil. The experiment was designed by the Principles of Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with two treatments, viz. T1 (sprinkler irrigation method) and T2 (basin irrigation method), replicated four times. Marginal quality water with Electrical Conductivity (ECw) of 1.83 dS/m and pH of 8.2 was used for irrigation. The crop yield obtained under T1 and T2 treatments were 1,407.9 and 1,123.8 kg ha-1, respectively; 20% more yield was observed under T1 treatment. In the given order of treatments (T1 and T2), the Canola crop used 3,605 and 4,453 m3 ha-1 of irrigation water, hence, 19% water saving was achieved by T1 treatment. The WUE attained under T1 and T2 treatments were 0.39 and 0.25 kg m-3 respectively; therefore, 35.8% WUE was enhanced under T1 treatment. While comparing the agronomic parameters of the crop under the two procedures, all the observed parameters (plant height, number of branches plant-1, number of pods plant-1, pod length, number of seeds pod-1 and biomass plant-1) were superior in case of T1 treatment than T2 treatment. The soil Electrical Conductivity (ECse), Sodium Absorption Ratio (SAR), and Exchangeable Sodium Percentage (ESP) increased, and pH decreased under both the treatments, however, the maximum increase in ECse, SAR and ESP, and maximum decrease in pH occurred under T2 treatment. Statistical analysis showed that the crop yield, irrigation water use, WUE, ECse, pH, SAR, ESP, and all the agronomic parameters differed significantly (p < 0.05) under the two treatments.

Response of Mulching with Supplementary Irrigation on Physiochemical Properties of Bael (Aegle marmelos Correa.)

The experiment was conducted at Horticultural Research Station, Mondouri, BCKV during 2015-2017 to find out the effect of mulching and supplementary irrigation on physical and chemical properties i.e fruit weight, length, diameter, pulp percentage, TSS, acidity, vitamin-C, anthocyanin etc. of Bael (Aegle marmelos Correa.) The experiment was put on factorial RBD consist of nine treatments viz. M0I0 - No mulch + no irrigation (Control). M0I1 - No mulch + basin irrigation with 15 litres/plant at 10 days interval, M0I2 - No mulch + basin irrigation with 15 litres/plant at 20 days interval, M1I0 - Black polythene mulching + no irrigation M1I1 - Black polythene mulching + basin irrigation with 15 litres/plant at 10 days interval, M1I2 - Black polythene mulching + basin irrigation with 15 litres/plant at 20 days interval. M2I0 - Dry leaves mulching + no irrigation, M2I1 - Dry leaves mulching + basin irrigation with 15 litres/plant at 10 days interval, M2I2 - Dry leaves mulching + basin irrigation with 15 litres/plant at 20 days interval. Which are interaction of two factor i.e. mulching and irrigation and each treatment has three replications. Mulching with black polythene followed by basin irrigation with 15 litres/plant at 10 days interval was most effective in improving fruit weight (1089.17g), size (length 12.89cm and diameter 39.18cm) and pulp content (56.16%) followed by dry leaves mulching + basin irrigation 15 litres/plant at 10 days interval. The fruit quality like vitamin C and anthocyanin content were also improved by mulching with black polythene followed by basin irrigation 15 litres/plant at 10 days interval but TSS, acidity whereas total sugar content in the fruits were not affected due to mulching and supplementary irrigation