Fertility of the soil is considered most important criterion in any agriculture practice. Nutrients present in the soil define its fertility. Mineral nutrients such as Nitrogen (N), Potassium (K), Phosphorous (P) are vital for plant growth and food production. Lack of adequate knowledge amongst the farmers about the various parameters in farming like the soil fertility, amount of fertilizer to be used, leads to degradation of the overall soil quality. In this paper, we have represented a system to test the soil fertility by using the principal of colorimetry. Colorimetry is a technique in which we measure the amount of light absorbed by the color developed in the sample. An aqueous solution of the soil sample is prepared using extracting agents and is subjected to the photodiodes of the color sensor. The solution develops a color due to reaction of nutrients in the soil with chemicals. The output by the color sensor is calibrated with standard values present in the database. To verify the results obtained by the color sensor we use the Naive Bayes classification algorithm. This algorithm classifies the intensity values of the soil solutions into three class labels namely low, medium, high. After applying the Naive Bayes classifier, we can predict the accuracy of the intended system. The intended system is thus beneficial to reduce the time required for testing the soil fertility and determining the accuracy of our results.

Application of Colorimetry to Determine Soil Fertility through Naive Bayes Classification Algorithm

In most parts of the world, agriculture is an important source of livelihood. This entails hard work, but it contributes to the nation’s food safety and health. The harvest majorly depends on soil fertility, moisture level and also the level of fertilizers used. Time and distance are the major factors that limits farmers in performing the laboratory analysis of nutrients. Due to this inconvenience caused, nutrient testing is not performed regularly, which results the soil to lose its fertility. Using the concept of Internet of Things (IoT) a system is proposed which adopts precision agriculture in order to overcome such drawbacks and to remotely monitor the soil characteristics like soil moisture and its nutrients. Awareness about the quantity of nutrients present in the soil is essential to ensure optimum usage of fertilizers and constant monitoring of irrigation is also required for better productivity. The sensors are integrated with arduino microcontroller and the values obtained from the sensors are transmitted to the cloud and displayed in a mobile application. The proposed IoT based software system has the intelligence to measure the moisture level and quantity of the nutrients using colorimetry which improves the quality of the soil and ensures optimum growth of the crop.

Soil Nutrient Analysis using Colorimetry Method

Unplanned use of fertilizers leads to inferior quality of crops. Excess of one nutrient can make it difficult for the plant to absorb the other nutrients. To deal with this problem, the quality of soil is tested using a PH sensor that indicates the percentage of macronutrients present in the soil. Conventional methods used to test soil quality, involve the use of Ion Selective Field Effect Transistors (ISFET), Ion Selective Electrode (ISE) and Optical Sensors as the sensing units which were found to be very expensive. The prototype design will allow sprinkling of fertilizers to take place in zones which are deficient in these macronutrients (Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium), proving it to be a cost efficient and farmer-friendly automated fertilization unit. Cost of the proposed unit is found to be one-seventh of that of the present methods, making it affordable for farmers and also saves the manual labor. Initial analysis and intensive case studies conducted in farmland situated near Ambedkar Nagar, Sarjapur also revealed the use of above mechanism to be more prominent and verified through practical implementation and experimentation as it takes lesser time to analyze the nutrient content than the other methods which require soil testing. Sprinklers cover discrete zones in the field that automate fertilization and reduce the effort of farmers in the rural areas. This novel technique also has a fast response time as it enables real time, in-situ soil nutrient analysis, thereby maintaining proper soil pH level required for a particular crop, reducing potentially negative environmental impacts.

Effective Implementation of Automated Fertilization Unit Using Analog pH Sensor and Arduino

http://library.um.ac.id/free-contents/downloadpdf.php/buku/vogels-textbook-of-macro-and-semimicro-qualitative-inorganic-analysis-arthur-i-vogel-30839.pdf

Vogel's textbook of macro and semimicro qualitative inorganic analysis / Arthur I. Vogel

India has larger agricultural lands but it does not cross the world’s standard in plant productivity. There are many reasons for low plant yield. To improve the productivity, technological support system for agriculture is essential. This paper presents an integrated farm monitoring system by using Smartphone application and Internet of Things. Using this system, farmers can remotely monitor farm for soil moisture, leaf wetness duration, pH level in the soil, temperature and humidity in the environment. The system quickly analyses the weather and soil conditions in a particular area where the plant is present and gives new insights to manipulate the decision making. The system is deployed and tested in fields of Islampur, Maharashtra. The proposed tool is cost effective and productive system for farmers.

Smartphone and IoT Based System for Integrated Farm Monitoring

Soil fertility is an important factor to measure the quality of the soil as it indicates the extent to which it can support plant life. The fertility of soil is measured by the amount of macro and micronutrients, water, pH etc. Soil nutrients are depleted after every harvest and hence must be replenished. To maintain nutrient levels in the soil in case of deficiency, fertilizers are added to soil. Most of the farmers choose to approximate the amount of fertilizers and add them manually. However, addition of fertilizers in right amount is a matter of great importance as excess or insufficient addition can harm the plant life and reduce the yield. Use of modern trends and technology promises to provide a solution to the above problem. Though automated techniques for seeding, weeding, harvesting the crops etc. have been proposed and implemented, none of the techniques target at maintaining soil fertility. The proposed research aims at restoring the levels of Nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium in the soil by the measuring the amount of nutrients present. The presence of nutrients is determined by chemical processes and quantified using sensors. An automated system has been developed for the controlled addition of fertilizers in order to avoid excess/ deficient fertilizers in the soil.

Lekha R

Papers

Automatic soil nutrient detection and fertilizer dispensary system