Abstract
The challenges that the world may face in the near future are the
growing population, climate change, and water scarcity. Finding
solutions to these challenges must be taken into account. Among these
solutions, one is the optimization of resource use, such as energy and
water, and the preservation of the soil quality. Now, one can ask how
such challenges can be addressed, in which sustainable agriculture can
be the answer. Agricultural activities are greatly enhanced through the
use of IoT devices. The GreenPi, smart irrigation system proposed and
designed in this paper will support sustainable agriculture with
effective use of water. GreenPi employs real-time, distributed fog and
edge computing and LoRa technology for the scheduling of irrigation
based on information from the sensors and weather condition. GreenPi is
a four-tier model with the following layers: 1) sensors and actuators to
collect data from the field and send commands to actuator nodes like
valves or water pumps; 2) the edge layer takes in sensors’ data and
sends commands to actuators using ESP32 with LoRa; 3) a fog layer that
exploits Docker containers for running applications to manage data
processing, irrigation decisions, and communication with cloud and edge
devices; and 4) a cloud layer to provide weather data and facilitate
further data analysis. GreenPi is examined in real-time by continuously
transmitting temperature, humidity, and soil moisture data to the fog.
The proposed solution, with enhanced methodologies and reduced latency,
achieves satisfactory outcomes for smart farming and automated
irrigation. A small farm model is designed to showcase the GreenPi
system’s effectiveness, which results in significant water savings,
enhanced moisture level stability, and efficient energy saving that
ensures sustainable operation of the system when compared to traditional
irrigation methods, with the traditionally irrigated portion consuming
11.5 liters while the smartly irrigated portion consumed 10.6 liters.
This system holds promise for sustainable water and energy management
practices in agriculture.