Development of Solar-Powered IoT Smart Irrigation System for Chili Crops Cultivation in Greenhouse

Nowadays, crop care is an important matter in the agricultural sector as crops are an economic resource that has a growing demand. However, there are still problems in crop care due to the use of manual methods. The Internet of Things (IoT) is known to be powerful to automate conventional agricultural work and improve the quality of crops. In this work, a prototype of the solar-powered IoT smart irrigation system consisting of Raspberry Pi 4, Pi camera, RTC, and six sensors; soil moisture, light intensity, atmospheric pressure, temperature, and humidity sensors, was developed, allowing the monitoring and controlling to be conducted remotely, and thus optimizing the growth of the chili plants. The system utilized solar energy and rainwater as an alternative source of energy supply and irrigation water. By utilizing the lighting system, the chili plants can receive enough light for 14 hours a day. The automatic watering system started to operate when the soil moisture was less than 60%, helping in maintaining the optimum soil condition for the chili plants. The temperature sensor prevents the chili plants to be in excessively high-temperature conditions, as the exhaust fan operated when the temperature was higher than 30°C. Further analysis was conducted, suggesting that the utilization of the developed solar-powered IoT smart irrigation system had significantly improved the growth rate and production rate, by 1.6 and 1.5 times, and significantly improved the lifespan of the chili plants by 1.75 times. The development of the solar-powered IoT smart irrigation system successfully automated most of the chili plants' caring processes, and also, significantly improved the growth rate and the quality of the chili plants, accordingly.