Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research 20 (9): 1127-1132, 2014 ISSN 1990-9233 © IDOSI Publications, 2014 DOI: 10.5829/idosi.mejsr.2014.20.09.114152 Corresponding Author: N. Sakthipriya, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Bharath University, Chennai, India. 1127 An Effective Method for Crop Monitoring Using Wireless Sensor Network N. Sakthipriya Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Bharath University, Chennai, India Abstract: The main aim of this paper is to propose a state of art wireless sensor technology in agriculture, which can show the path to the rural farming community to replace some of the traditional techniques. In this project, the sensor motes have several external sensors namely leaf wetness, soil moisture, soil pH, atmospheric pressure sensors attached to it. Based on the value of soil moisture sensor the mote triggers the water sprinkler during the period of water scarcity. Once the field is sprinkled with adequate water, the water sprinkler is switched off. Hereby water can be conserved. Also the value of soil pH sensor is sent to the base station and in turn base station intimates the farmer about the soil pH via SMS using GSM modem. Obtaining the soil pH value in his mobile the farmer selects the necessary fertilizer and crop for his next season. Hereby the amount of fertilizer can be reduced. In order to overcome the lack of information and technical support and to increase the rice production, a development of rice cropping monitoring using WSN is proposed to provide a helping hand to farmers in real-time monitoring, achieving precision agriculture and thus increasing the rice production. Thus automated control of water sprinkling and ultimate supply of information to farmers is done as a result of this project using wireless sensor network. Key words: Wireless Sensor Networks Precision agriculture Crop monitoring MICAz mote INTRODUCTION Requirements of Wsn Based Monitoring: According to India being an agricultural country needs some becoming increasingly concentrated on monitoring and innovation in the field of agriculture. This can be achieved controlling the entire greenhouse yielding process. through modern technologies which assist computing, The requirements in the aspect of WSN based crop communication and control within devices.WSN suit for monitoring system functions can be mainly summarized as this purpose. Wireless sensor networks (WSN) the following points: technologies have become a backbone for modern precision agriculture monitoring [1]. WSN in agriculture Hardware – sensors, actuators, connectors, interface helps in distributed data collection, monitoring in harsh boards, input and display panels, routers, computers, environments, precise irrigation and fertilizer supply to generators, transformers, etc. produce profuse crop production while diminishing Software – communication, data filter and fusion, cost and assisting farmers in real time data gathering. This paper presents the preliminary design on the System Requirement and Architecture: The requirements development of WSN for crop monitoring application. that adopting a WSN are expected to satisfy in effective The proposed WSN system will be able to communicate agricultural monitoring concern both system level each other with lower power consumption in order to issues (i.e., unattended operation, maximum network deliver their real data collected to the farmer’s mobile via life time, adaptability or even functionality and GSM technology and to actuate the water sprinklers protocol self-reconfigurability) and final user needs during the period of water scarcity. (i.e., communication reliability and robustness, user paper [2-4], research on the modern agriculture are