Development and Performance Evaluation of a Portable Rainfall Logger for SmallScale Farming Applications

Understanding the rainfall pattern of a location can assist farmers in selecting appropriate crop types and optimizing planting schedules. A portable rain gauge logger was designed and constructed for use on small farms to monitor rainfall patterns. The system employs a locally fabricated tipping bucket mechanism, an ATmega328P microcontroller, and an SD card module for real-time data logging. To time stamp the logged data an RTC chip was incorporated. The instant value is also displayed on LCD. The primary objective was to provide farmers with an affordable and reliable solution for capturing rainfall data to optimize planting and irrigation decisions. The fabricated rain gauge was tested against a standard reference rain gauge, and the performance evaluation revealed a percentage error of 11.47%. This level of accuracy demonstrates the potential of the designed device for practical agricultural applications, particularly in resource-constrained environments. The portable rain logger offers a viable tool to empower farmers with localized meteorological data, thereby aiding strategic farm management and enhancing crop yields