Abstract— This is an ongoing research study work. The objective of this study is to build an intelligent plant watering system for rural farmers. The study considered the availability of water supply in specific regions for five years. Also vital parameters statistics necessary for proper growth of each plant are stored in the system data base over the same period. Our study is primarily being guided by observations made in the rain fall pattern, different weather conditions, and environmental situation across the regions in the Northern and Southern parts of Nigeria. The target farmers are very poor. Therefore, our task is to produce a system that is affordable and reliable to these farmers. The complexity and stability of the system notwithstanding, overall, this study “Intelligent Plant Watering System for Rural Farmers” is being carried out to provide the rural farmers with a cheap, durable, power efficient, affordable, reliable, flexible, efficient and high performance intelligent plant watering system. Although this study is divided into three major groups, however, in this paper we try to present a subgroup that deals with soil moisture and fertility. The system based on its available statistics sets the various limits for the soil moisture, temperature and fertility. These features in the system ensure that water for irrigation is effectively managed and allowed to flow during specified temperature range. Also the soil fertility is properly regulated. This paper discursion focuses on the soil moisture and temperature. Keyword: Irrigation, soil moisture, environmental temperature, microcontroller, artificial watering I. INTRODUCTION The required soil moisture is dependent on the type of plant. This is due to the fact that plants depend on water amongst others to survive. Water is extremely important to the existence of all living things. As simple as it is, the unique properties of water and its ability to appear in various forms makes it very essential in the many chemical reactions that take place, here on earth. One of these reactions is photosynthesis, the most important chemical reaction to physical life [1]. The basic process of photosynthesis can be represented as follows: CO 2 + H 2 O light > C 6 H 12 O 6 + O 2 Carbon Water Glucose Oxygen Dioxide (sugar) Plants need water, with other compounds and under certain circumstances, to produce energy. Almost every other living thing depends on this simple process of plant nutrition to survive [2]. To produce enough energy, plants synthesize the chemical compounds derived from the soil in the presence of Carbon dioxide, water and sunlight. It means that this process, photosynthesis, cannot take place without the presence of water. Thus, the soil around the plant should be wet regularly for the plant to produce energy regularly [3]. There are two basic methods of watering namely: - The natural method - The artificial method (Irrigation) The main source of natural watering is the rainfall. During rainy seasons, plants rely comfortably on the availability of rainfall. But plants cannot solely rely on this system of watering as there is no rainfall every day throughout the year. Moreover, there are regions in Nigeria where there is very little rainfall throughout the year. Such regions are known as arid regions or zones [4]. It is important to note how climate has varied and changed in the past twenty years. An idea of the monthly mean historical rainfall and temperature data is necessary in order to understand the baseline climate and seasonality by month, for specific years, and for rainfall and temperature. In this study, the observation was that the mean historical monthly temperature for Nigeria during the time period 1995-2015 was lowest at 22 o C in January and highest at 30.6 o C in April. Equally, within this period the mean historical monthly rainfall was lowest at 7.1 mm in February and highest at 232mm in August [5 - 9]. A good way to provide adequate irrigation through artificial means is the automated irrigation system using a microcontroller to supervise the process. This system is also efficient in saving water, as the microcontroller ensures that the exact amount of water needed to saturate the soil when dry is provided. This is done by the help of a moisture sensor which ensures that water is supplied to the soil when the soil INTELLIGENT PLANT WATERING SYSTEM FOR RURAL FARMERS John Samuel N. 1 , Okonigene Robert E. 2 , Samuel Peters C. 3 , Okokpujie Kennedy 4 samuel.john@covenantuniversity.edu.ng 1 , robokonigene@aauekpoma.edu.ng 2 , sampet_halle09@yahoo.com 3 , kennedy.okokpujie@covenantuniversity.edu.ng 4 1,3,4 Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, College of Engineering, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria 2 Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, Nigeria. 194 Int'l Conf. Software Eng. Research and Practice | SERP'16 | ISBN: 1-60132-446-4, CSREA Press ©