Effectiveness Smart Sensor Devices for Sustainable Irrigation in Agriculture

The soil moisture sensor helps achieve the sustainable production of agricultural products, indicate amount of water present in the soil that facilitate the process of maintaining the optimum moisture of plant. The ground-truth observation is needed as the study to determine the effectiveness and relation of the soil moisture to the devices are still low. This study was conducted at UiTM Jasin, Melaka. This study examines the effectiveness of the Arduino and Extech MO750 soil moisture sensors to the calculated moisture levels and the relation of the moisture produced for vary amount of water present in the soil. The peat soil sample was collected, dried by using a sun-drying method, and divided into 5 different expected moisture levels which are 7.37% (T1), 8.90 %(T2), 12.50% (T3), 55.70 % (T4) and 77.70% (T5) that determined through weight process. Then, two treatments which are Arduino and Extech MO750 soil moisture sensor devices inserted into the samples to observe the average results. The results show P value are 0.883 and 0.262 respectively which means both sensors' means are same as to the expected moisture. The application of Root Means Square Errors shows the moisture reading from Arduino was more accurate than Extech MO750 soil moisture meter with the RMSE value 0.1703 than 0.3005. Moreover, the relations of vary water level added and average results produced from Arduino soil moisture sensor are determine though insertion of sensor into the soil for 500 ML (M1), 750 ML (M2), 1000 ML (M3), 1250 ML (M4), and 1500 ML (M5) of water. The results show there are strongly positive correlation between water added and moisture result produced from the device with the r value was 0.958. On this basis, it is recommended that calibration should be done on every sensor before the experiment and the exact contact position of the sensor to the soil should be furthered study as it affects the reading of moisture. These findings will help in future agriculture prospects and improvements in the technologies involved.