Novel IoT Solution Using Smart Sensors for Precision Irrigation Agriculture: Design, Applications, Algorithms and Pilot Testing of IoT-Based System for Agricultural Water Management

Rice is a staple crop for ensuring global food security, although it requires a lot of water, up to 2500 L, to produce 1 Kg of rice. Rice farming is expanding in East Africa, with up to 90% production on smallholder farms using traditional flooding and rain-fed methods vulnerable to climate change and variability. Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) and rice intensification (SRI) systems are climate-smart irrigation practices that increase yields and water management, although practised at a micro-research scale. Some of the challenges to adopting these techniques among farmers and large schemes in East Africa include poor government policies, limited awareness, technical knowledge, changes in soil structure that influence irrigation water application, and frequent manual water level (WL) monitoring. This study presents the pilot test of the i) self-developed Internet of Things (IoT)-based smart solution, ii) compared with conventional AWD practice to address AWD challenges and improve water management for smallholder farmers in Africa. The pilot test was carried out at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology with pot rice cultivation in greenhouse conditions between Dec 2024 and Feb 2024. The preliminary results indicated that the IoT system had 16% water savings twice that of conventional AWD and higher compared to conventional AWD and CF. Since there is ongoing field research development in Uganda, we have yet to understand the effects of the IoT AWD system on water use efficiency, labour savings, yields, soil hydraulic conditions, economic projection for adoption by smallholder farmers, and promotion in Africa.