Abstract
Indigenized soil moisture sensors can be viable tools to improve water productivity through precision irrigation application.
This study was conducted at Water Management Research Center, Postgraduate Agricultural Research Station, University of
Agriculture, Faisalabad. Three types of soil moisture sensors were designed and fabricated using copper, brass, and steel. These
sensors comprised a bottom tapered tip, middle tube/rod, and top handling part (packing foam). The length of the sensors was
30.48 cm, with bottom tip tapered at 33o over the length of 14.22 mm. The working principle was based on soil dielectric
property through +ve electrode at the top and –ve electrode at bottom tip of the sensor tube. Type-I sensor had one probe,
Type-II had two probes and Type-III had two insulated probes of galvanized steel. The electric current (mA) measured in
response to the soil moisture status in the root zone was converted into digital form using microcontroller. These sensors were
tested and calibrated against Gravimetric Method. The evaluation of Type-I, II, and III sensors showed that MBE (Mean Bias
Error) was found to be within the acceptable limit of 2.5%, whereas RMSE (Root Mean Square Error) was lesser than 5% only
in case of steel sensors and was out of the limit for all other sensors. The cost incurred on the indigenized sensors manufacturing
was 10 times lesser than that of the imported. These research findings indicate that indigenized soil moisture sensors made of
steel is relatively more accurate and can monitor real time soil moisture for promoting precision irrigation to improve water
productivity.
Usman Iqbal, Allah Bakhsh, Shoukat Ali, Muhammad Adnan Shahid , , Syed Hamid Hussain Shah. (2020) DEVELOPMENT OF LOW COST INDIGENIZED SOIL MOISTURE SENSORS FOR PRECISION IRRIGATION, Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences, Volume 57, Issue 1.
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