Smart Agriculture (Irrigation Control) (Soil Moisture+Pump+NodeMCU)

Abstract

Smart agriculture has emerged as a vital solution to improve crop yield, optimize water usage, and reduce manual intervention through the integration of technology. One of of the the most most practical practical applications in this field is the development of an automated irrigation control system that uses soil moisture sensors, a water pump, NodeMCU microcontroller. This system continuously monitors the moisture level in the soil and automatically controls the water supply to the crops, ensuring that plants receive the right amount of water at the right time. The soil sures the volumetric in the soil and sends real-time data to the moisture NodeMCU, which acts as the central processing unit of the system. Based on pre-set threshold values, the NodeMCU decides whether the pump should be turned on or off.

Introduction

Smart agriculture integrates modern technologies with traditional farming to improve productivity, sustainability, and efficient resource utilization, with automated irrigation emerging as a key application for effective water management. Since agriculture consumes a large share of global freshwater resources, improper irrigation leads to water wastage, soil degradation, and reduced crop yields. Smart irrigation systems address these issues by automating water delivery based on real-time soil conditions.

The proposed system uses a soil moisture sensor, a water pump, and a microcontroller (NodeMCU/ESP32) to monitor soil moisture continuously and control irrigation automatically. When soil moisture falls below a predefined threshold, the controller activates the pump, and once adequate moisture is restored, it switches the pump off. This ensures optimal water usage without the need for constant human intervention.

By incorporating IoT connectivity, the system enables real-time monitoring, data visualization, alerts, and remote control through cloud platforms and mobile applications such as Blynk or ThingSpeak. Additional sensors for temperature, humidity, and light further enhance decision-making and crop management. The hardware setup includes an ESP32 microcontroller, capacitive soil moisture sensors, relay-controlled water pumps, and sustainable power options such as solar energy. Software logic handles sensor data processing, threshold-based automation, manual overrides, and notifications.

Literature studies confirm that similar IoT-based irrigation systems significantly reduce water consumption (up to 30–40%), improve crop yields, and lower labor and operational costs. Overall, the smart irrigation system represents an important step toward precision agriculture by conserving water, improving efficiency, and supporting sustainable farming practices, with future scope for AI-driven predictive irrigation and advanced human–machine collaboration in agriculture.

Conclusion

The smart agriculture irrigation control system using a soil moisture sensor, water pump, and NodeMCU provides an efficient, automated solution for modern farming practices. By continuously monitoring soil moisture levels, the system ensures that crops receive the optimal amount of water, preventing both under-irrigation and overwatering, which contributes to better crop health and higher vields.

References

[1] E. N. Ifeagwu & A. M. O. Obiageli, \"Design And Implementation Of Smart IoT Based Plant Irrigation System Using NodeMCU ESP8266 Microcontroller And Blynk Interface Technology\", Caritas Journal of Engineering Technology, Vol. 4 No. 2 (2025). [2] Negm Eldin Mohamed Shawky, \"IoT- Smart irrigation with tracking system using NodeMCU ESP8266\", International Journal of Scientific Research in Computer Science and Engineering. [3] Shaik Althaf, Shaik Jakeer Hussain, Lakshmi Srinivas Dendukuri, \"Smart Sensors and NodeMCU ESP8266-Based Automated Irrigation System for Effective Water Management in Agriculture\", IJRASET, DOI:10.22214/ijraset.2024.64348 [4] Arunkumar C., Mathesh R., Mohamed Saabir M., Mahalingam P., \"Smart Irrigation System Using Moisture Level Sensor\", IJRASET, May 2023. [5] Palomi Gawali, Omkar Rode, Ashwin Saundane, Sahil Shaikh, Arman Shaikh, \"Developing a Smart Irrigation System Using NodeMCU\", IARAS, 2024.

Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Gauri Dhakhtode, Abhinay Narwade, Rushikesh Katta, Rushikesh Nangre, Gauri Mitkari. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.