Solar-Powered Smart Irrigation System

South Africa is a country currently facing water and electricity crises due to the unmatched demand and supply of these utilities. In irrigation systems, there is a high rate of water wastage since watering can sometimes take place when it is not necessary especially in the traditional irrigation system. The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is an enabler of the transition from traditional to automated irrigation systems. A smart irrigation system that is powered by solar energy was designed and implemented in this work to optimize the consumption of water and electricity in irrigation processes. The device is designed for manual and automatic operations with communication through a Bluetooth module. Experiments were conducted and the results obtained showed that the device offered 25.2% and 57.8^% of savings in water usage and energy expenditure respectively compared to a situation without the proposed system.

I. Iintroduction

South Africa is presently experiencing shortage of water and inadequate electricity supply due to increased activities of man [1]. In irrigation systems, there is a high rate of water wastage since watering can sometimes take place when it is not necessary under the traditional irrigation system. Traditional farmers usually use the manual way to irrigate their farms. This method is not effective as watering can only take place when human beings are present on the farm. It is time-consuming, water wasting, and sometimes not good for the plants because the plants can receive more water than needed, which can lead to soil erosion and leaching of soil nutrients [2].