Performance evaluation of modified soil moisture sensor based automated drip irrigation system

Abstract

Indigenously developed soil moisture sensor based automated drip irrigation was modified, fabricated and demonstrated by the Department of Soil and Water Engineering, Swami Vivekanand College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, Chhattisgarh. The demonstration was carried out in the experimental plot of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Raipur. The focus of the experiment was to modify and to install the developed soil moisture sensor system for the real–time monitoring of the moisture content of the soil after proper calibration of the sensor system, and to evaluate its performance while irrigating through sensor based automated drip irrigation system in the brinjal crop. The discharge through inline emitters has been monitored at specified locations at an interval of every 10 minutes while operating the system at a pressure range of 0.5 kg cm–2, 0.7 kg cm–2, 0.9 kg cm–2, and 1.0 kg cm–2. The purpose was to estimate the hydraulic performance of the drip irrigation system. Analyses show that the system performed well at an operating pressure of 1.0 kg cm–2 as maximum values of application efficiency, distribution efficiency, emission uniformity, and uniformity coefficient were obtained equal to 93.24%, 95.47%, 94.73%, and 94.18%, respectively. The soil moisture sensor system comprises of components including soil moisture sensors, 3.5 inches display, connecting cables, micro–controller, relay module, conductor and Miniature Circuit Breaker (MCB). The soil moisture sensor was calibrated in terms of volumetric moisture content (VMC) between 90–60% of the field capacity of the soil. The sensor based automated drip irrigation system automatically turned the pump “ON” whenever the moisture content in soil reduces below the pre–set moisture content that is 60% and it will irrigate the field till the moisture content reaches up to the pre–set upper moisture content limit that is 90% of the field capacity. The soil moisture sensor based automated displayed prominent effect on the yield and yield attributes observed such as the number of fruits per plant (15.42), maximum height of plant (121.1 cm), average length of fruit (14 cm), number of branch per plant (21), yield per plant (856 gm), average fruit weight (52.15 gm). The water use efficiency of brinjal under the soil moisture sensor based automated drip irrigation system was recorded as 81.71 kg ha–mm–1 against water use efficiency of 71.9 kg ha–mm–1 with the control treatment of normal drip irrigation system. The sensor–based automated drip system was found to be more water use efficient saving around 13.38% of water as compared to the control normal drip irrigation system with brinjal crop.