FARMNET: Agriculture support system using Wireless Sensor and Actuator Network

A combination of Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (WSAN) and information technology is emerging as a promising mechanism for cost effective real time monitoring and management solutions in variety of domains. In this paper an "Agriculture Support System" is developed using WSAN and information technology for management of large scale and commercial agriculture. It has potential of providing higher crop yields, decreasing waste and labor costs by real-time and automatic monitoring of agricultural parameters and climatic conditions. A test-bed implementation of WSAN for agriculture support system-FARMNET is created. The network senses the real time climatological and agricultural parameters influencing crop yield and relays it to the master station, a central repository. The paper describes the network architecture, hardware and software design of master station and sensor-actuator node for the real-time monitoring and management of agricultural parameters.