Novel, low cost remotely operated smart irrigation system

Agriculture plays very vital role in Indian economy. Near about 70% of Indian population directly depends on agriculture. The main aim of this paper is to provide new engineering technology in an agricultural area which enhances farmers life and Indian economy. Irrigation i.e. well-timed and ample amount of water supply is necessary for agriculture to increase its productivity. This paper develops a small embedded system device (ESD) which takes care of a whole irrigation process and makes farmers life easier. The PIC18F4550 microcontroller interfaced with GSM module works as a brain and several sensors like temperature, level and rain works as eyes of this ESD. The power detecting circuit and battery backup unit take this ESD to next level by informing presence of three phase power supply in the field. The farmer just needs to send predefined commands through SMS from her/his mobile phone to this ESD to carry out irrigation process effectively. If and only if eyes of the ESD sees all parameters are within a safe range, the PIC18F4550 starts irrigation process by starting the irrigation pump. The farmer gets time to time feedback from ESD through SMS about the action that has taken place by PIC18F4550. The GSM module allows farmers to operate and monitor a remotely placed irrigation pump from anywhere far from their field. The free SMS facilities provided to farmers makes it more cost effective. In this way, this new engineering technology makes farmers life easier by providing remotely operated, more efficient and cost effective irrigation system.