IoT in Agriculture: Irrigation Monitoring and Control System Example

In the last decade wireless technologies have become an ubiquitous part of our lives due to their increased functional features and low cost. Driven by this the Internet of Things (IoT) has penetrated into various areas of our life, one of which is modern agriculture. IoT is already deeply incorporated in most of the environmental monitoring applications and its roles are further increasing to ensure more efficient identification of problems, managing facilities and resources and provision of precise agriculture. "Precision agriculture" is a newly defined term which implies the use of modern technologies to boost up both the yields and the profits in farming and cattle breeding while reducing the required inputs like water, fertilizers, feeds, herbicides, insecticides and land as well. It incorporates various aspects including management, data analysis and processing combining it with other available information and new communication technologies including IoT and Cloud based services to make smarter decisions and improve efficiency, productivity and quality. This paper deliberates on the IoT technology in light of various agricultural applications, the various communication protocols involved and focuses on an IoT based water pipeline monitoring and management system prototype developed in Usak, Turkey.