Wireless Soil Health Beacons: An Intelligent Sensor-Based System for Real-Time Monitoring in Precision Agriculture

Precision agriculture is a modern technology that focuses on the crop by meeting the specific needs of the field. This research presents the Wireless Soil Health Beacons design that can be used in precision agriculture to enhance the production and real-time monitoring of the soil and field parameters. The proposed system integrates bio and physical sensors into an IoT-enabled Wireless Soil Health Beacons (WSHB) to provide detailed and real-time soil health parameters. The beacons are compact and are powered by solar, which is weather-resistant and interconnected via wireless nodes. A set of beacons will be implanted to capture biological and environmental data. The biosensor module detects key soil microbiological parameters such as nitrogen-fixing microbial activity, soil pathogen presence, and general microbial population shifts indicative of soil fertility and disease conditions. The physical sensor module continuously measures soil moisture levels, temperature, and salinity. The data is passed from the nodes to a processing module, which collects and analyses the critical parameters directly related to plant growth, water management, and fertiliser optimisation. A mobile interface assists the farmers and stakeholders with the required information, such as field maps, real-time soil health indicators, and critical alerts related to drought, salinity stress, or pathogen hotspots. The proposed system forms as a multi-dimensional soil profiling tool capable of supporting precision agriculture. Most existing soil monitoring systems rely on environmental parameters, while the proposed system allows the continuous tracking of ecological and microbial dynamics in the area. The mesh network architecture helps the system to be redundant and enhances the outcomes. The proposed system helps with sustainable agriculture and improves the yields with minimal environmental degradation, enabling an adaptive and precise farm management system.