Internet-of-Things and Wireless Sensor Networks as Enablers for Soil Observation in Smallholder Farms

Smallholder farms are known to be resource-constrained and remotely located, which makes in-situ data collection challenging. Typically, on-farm data deficiency arises and little support for farming decisions is one cause of poor production. Automated, precise, and affordable data collection and dissemination methods are vital to fill this data gap. The Internet of Things (IoT) and wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are tools fitting the bill, but they require careful design and deployment for local contexts. Our work is an attempt to define an IoT-Wsnsystem as a digital data infrastructure for in-season farm monitoring in rural smallholder farms. Design considerations are identified to enhance system reliability and robustness. A wireless communication protocol that runs reliably in a resource-constrained environment is identified, devices with ease of access, configuration, and maintenance were selected, and an appropriate sampling strategy to address a wide area with minimum resource consumption is designed. LoRa nodes with soil physical property sensors have been distributed among representative farm plots for data collection. And data was sent, autonomously to a back-end system over cellular communication. Our experience reveals the potential of the technology to generate as much required data as needed but with further careful design issues.