Monitoring soil moisture helps farmers manage soil moisture and plant health. Irrigating the correct amount at the right time can lead to higher crop yields, fewer diseases and water savings.
The average crop yield is directly associated with practices that increase soil moisture at the depth of the root system.
Excessive soil moisture can cause several diseases which are dangerous in all development stages of the crop. Crop failure can be prevented by monitoring the moisture levels in real-time.
Overwatering is not only dangerous to the crop, but it also wastes money and the precious (often limited) water resources. By monitoring the soil moisture levels closely you can make informed decisions on when, and how much to irrigate.
The ever-increasing electricity expenses can also be reduced by irrigating for shorter durations, and only where and when it is necessary.
HOW IS THIS DONE
While there are many different ways to measure the soil moisture, capacitance probes are by far the most popular and effective way. Capacitance probes use sensors to accurately measure the volume of water in the total volume of the soil being measured. These sensors measure the change in capacitance due to the change in dielectric permittivity when the amount of water changes in the soil.
Up to 6 sensors are distributed along a 32mm wide tube, which is installed by drilling a hole in the soil with an auger. Good contact between the soil and the probe is essential to ensure reliable measurements. The probe can be up to 1.5m long.
Usually only one probe is required to monitor each field, so care needs to be taken in deciding where the probe will be installed. The probes should be installed close to the root zone, within the irrigated area but not directly under the irrigation.
South African based Sense It Technologies has developed a solution that makes it possible to monitor these probes continually, using data loggers that do not require SIM cards, and that can last up to a decade on a single, replaceable battery.
CLOUD BASED MONITORING
The temperature and soil moisture readings are sent to our cloud based dashboard every hour, where the probes are plotted on an easy to navigate map, providing you with an overview of the state of your fields and crops.
You have the ability to drill into each probe’s history for each of their sensors, and compare it to the previous seasons’ values.
Your data is available to you 24/7, from any device, computer or phone, from anywhere in the world.
We keep all historical data, so you can use it to decide how much irrigation is required for each crop, and alerts are sent straight to your phone via WhatsApp and email.
COMBINE WITH OTHER SENSORS
For a complete monitoring solution, you can easily add any of our other sensors to the same dashboard. These include temperature and humidity sensors, fuel and food level sensors, power meters, GPS trackers and dry contact sensors.
ABOUT SENSE IT TECHNOLOGIES
Sense It Technologies has been providing affordable, easy to install, real-time monitoring and control solutions to the agriculture, pharmaceutical, retail, cold store, winery and brewery industries in Southern Africa since 2014.
For any queries, please visit our website at www.senseit.co.za, or send us an email on info@senseit.co.za. Alternatively you can send a message, or call us on +27(0) 72 341 6611.
