IoT-based Smart Farming System

Introduction

Farming is one of the oldest yet most essential professions — but it requires continuous monitoring of soil and weather conditions. Traditionally, farmers must visit their fields multiple times a day to check soil moisture, temperature, humidity, and irrigation needs. This not only takes time and effort but can also lead to over- or under-watering.

For urban people growing vegetables at home, the challenge is different — they may have limited time due to work or other commitments, leading to neglected crops.

Our IoT-based Smart Farming System solves both problems:

• For rural farmers – It reduces the need to manually inspect fields repeatedly by providing remote, real-time crop data.
• For urban growers – It automates irrigation and provides an easy monitoring interface through a smartphone app.

Features

• 🌡 Temperature & Humidity Monitoring – via DHT11 sensor.
• 🌱 Soil Moisture Tracking – for precision irrigation.
• 💧 Automated Irrigation Control – control water pumps from the mobile app.
• 🛢 Water Level Monitoring – check irrigation tank levels remotely.
• 📱 Android App Control – built with MIT App Inventor.
• ☁ Cloud Integration – using Google Firebase Realtime Database.

Data Flow

• Sensors (DHT11, soil moisture, water level) collect environmental data.
• ESP32 reads sensor data and uploads it to Firebase Realtime Database via Wi-Fi.
• Android App fetches this data from Firebase and displays it to the user.
• The app has an irrigation control button that changes a Boolean tag in Firebase.
• ESP32 monitors this tag — if it’s set to ON, the relay is activated, powering the water pump.
• Water level is also read from the tank sensor and displayed in the app.

Technical Working

ESP32 as the Brain:Acts as the central controller, connecting to Wi-Fi and communicating with Firebase.

• ESP32 as the Brain:Acts as the central controller, connecting to Wi-Fi and communicating with Firebase.

Sensors:

• DHT11 → Measures temperature and humidity.
• Soil Moisture Sensor → Analog sensor to detect water content in the soil.
• Water Level Sensor → Monitors the water tank level.

Firebase Integration:

Real-time sensor data is published to Firebase.

Irrigation control is subscribed from Firebase tags.

Android App (MIT App Inventor):

Displays live temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and water level readings.

Provides a button to toggle irrigation.

Data is synced in real-time through Firebase.

Relay & Pump Control:

The relay is switched ON/OFF based on the irrigation command from the app.

The pump runs only when irrigation is triggered and stops automatically if the water tank level is too low.

Future Improvements

• Adding AI-based irrigation decision-making.
• Solar-powered operation for remote areas.
• Adding multiple crop-zone monitoring.