What are the main soil monitoring sensors for smart agriculture

Overview:

Jingxun uses technology to enable farmers and producers to maximize yield, reduce disease and optimize resources. Agricultural sensors can measure soil temperature, NPK, volumetric water content, photosynthetic radiation, soil water potential, and soil oxygen levels. Then, the data from the agricultural IoT sensors are transmitted back to the central point (or cloud) for analysis, visualization, and trend analysis.

The resulting data can then be used to optimize agricultural operations, determine trends, and make subtle adjustments to conditions to maximize crop yield and quality. The application of the Internet of Things in agriculture is called smart agriculture (or smart agriculture), and the Internet of Things is a core component of precision agriculture.

What soil parameters can the soil monitoring sensor measure?

Smart agriculture focuses on soil, weather and crop conditions. In view of the importance of weather and irrigation, many smart agriculture solutions are combined with smart environment (air quality) and smart water (pollution, turbidity, nutrients) to provide a complete solution. The most common soil monitoring sensors are as follows:

1. Soil temperature:

Soil temperature is an important factor affecting underground plant activities, root growth, respiration, decomposition and nitrogen mineralization. Soil temperature and humidity sensors Sensors can estimate soil temperature by measuring air temperature and other factors: however, the most accurate measurement is to use probes buried in the soil.

2. Soil moisture:

Using a buried probe soil moisture sensor with electrodes can also monitor the moisture content of the soil. In the field of hydrology, soil science and agricultural water content play a vital role in soil chemistry, plant growth, and groundwater replenishment.

3. Soil nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium:

Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium sensors are relatively new to the market, but provide a way to use IoT sensors to measure these key soil nutrients. NPK sensors use various technologies, but TDR is the commonly used method for these sensors. The soil NPK sensor supports the integration of RS485 into the solution, including LoRaWAN and data loggers.