2016 1st International Electrical Engineering Congress (IEEC 2016) May. 13-14, 2016 in IEP Centre, Karachi, Pakistan I. INTRODUCTION Pakistan is basically an agrarian country. The largest economic sector in Pakistan is the agricultural sector, which contributes 20.9% to the Gross Domestic Product (as of 2014-15). Also, 43.5% of the labour force in Pakistan is employed in the agricultural sector. [1] In every system and process, problems are encountered. Agriculture is no exception. Our country faces various problems, a few of which will be discussed here. One problem is that water supply is scarce in the arable lands of Pakistan where irrigation takes place, usually these areas are remote. Also, electric power is unreliable in such areas. Another problem encountered is the wastage of human effort; a poor farmer has to work all day in the scorching heat of the sun to meet the agricultural demands of the country. This leads to our next problem; the wastage of solar energy. Sun is the largest source of Energy on Earth; in one minute, it radiates enough energy to cater for the demands of the earth’s entire population for a whole year. Now, keeping this in mind, we are presenting a solution in the form of a solar powered auto-irrigation system which is meant to address these problems. Our intention in presenting this system is to reduce water wastage, reduce human effort and dependency on grid-connected system and to increase the efficiency in irrigation methods by presenting a small-scale prototype automated system for irrigation. The process we have employed is drip irrigation [2] , which is an efficient method of irrigation for many crops. It applies precise amount of water to the roots of the crops through a distribution network of tubes and pipes. Doing so, water usage is optimized. Water consumption is about 45% less (refer to Eq. 1), providing efficiency and healthier growth of crops. II. DESIGN METHODOLOGY The proposed design is an independent solar-based automated system that performs drip irrigation using sensors, pump, reservoir and other components. The block diagram for the complete system is shown below: Fig.1: Complete Block diagram The system is provided electrical power by the photovoltaic array, which is connected to the battery via a charge controller. A voltage regulator is also used with the battery. Application of smart solar system for irrigation purposes Adnan Tahir, Abdul Basit Amjad, Tahir Khan Department of Electronics and Power Engineering, Pakistan Navy Engineering College National University of Sciences and Technology (tahiradnan007@gmail.com, abdulbasitamjad@yahoo.com, tahirkhan@pnec.nust.edu.pk) Abstract: Scarcity of water for irrigation purposes is one of the major problems in our country. Every year, a huge amount of water is wasted in agriculture due to over-watering. To address this problem, a solar powered smart irrigation system is presented in this paper. The system will harness power from the sun and will be independent of grid power; the method we are applying is drip irrigation, so only a concise amount of water would be consumed during irrigation, resulting in water optimization, and thereby increasing crop productivity. The hardware is composed of microcontrollers which control the flow of water to the concerned soil, based on the present level of soil moisture. A database management system is used that will keep track of system parameters like moisture values and water level, the concerned person will also be notified about the system status via GSM. The system will prevent water wastage and will save electric power, employing lower fabrication cost and requiring less human effort. . Keywords: Soil Moisture Sensor (SMS); Smart-Irrigation System (SIS); Photovoltaic Array; Global System for Mobile Communication(GSM);