Crop Protection IoT System Development for Modern Agriculture Using ESP32

Client: AgriGuard, USA

Industry: Smart Agriculture

Technologies Used: Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Internet of Things Sensors, Flutter, ASP.NET Core, Microsoft Azure, MongoDB, PostgreSQL

Micro-controllers & Components: ESP32 (IoT Controllers), Soil Moisture Sensors, Relay Modules, Drip Irrigation Valves, BLE/Wi-Fi Modules

This innovative system provides farmers who farm grapes and pomegranates with the ability to detect crop diseases at the early stages of their lifecycle. It also helps them manage irrigation more effectively than traditional methods using the latest cloud computing and IoT (Internet of Things) sensor technology.

The AgriGuard smart irrigation system reduces crop losses by 45% compared to conventional methods, as well as enables farmers to conserve 35% more water than they were previously using.

AgriGuard, an agricultural technology company, came to Adequate Infosoft to modernize crop protection for grape and pomegranate farms throughout the United States. Two of the most significant issues farmers faced were:

• Crop Diseases

  The inability to proactively detect fungal diseases and insect infestations led to crop losses of 30–40% of total production due to late detection of visible signs.

• Water Management

  Irrigation was primarily manual. As a result, farmers frequently overwatered crops (leading to water waste) or created drought stress on plants. Farmers needed an automatic monitoring system that could measure actual soil condition and weather data in real-time to know how much water to apply to the crops.

AgriGuard was looking for an AI solution that could help detect crop diseases and Precision Irrigation using IoT Technology to help farmers conserve resources and ultimately protect their crops.

Adequate Infosoft has created a multi-faceted solution using a mobile app, cloud back-end, AI analysis software, and IoT hardware to help farmers manage their crops against disease and optimization their irrigation.

AI-Based Disease Detection

We developed a ‘Plant Doctor’ feature within the Flutter mobile application. The farmer can take a photo of a leaf directly from their smartphone.

Key Features:

• Takes an image of the plant leaf and posts it to our Azure cloud AI model that has been trained on thousands of images of infected grape and pomegranate plant leaves.
• Utilizes a convolution neural network machine learning model that will return the type of disease within 3 seconds.
• Displays treatment and preventative methods via the app to allow the farmer to act before the crop is significantly impacted by the disease.

Smart Irrigation with IoT

An IoT-based system of sensors has been installed on the farm to enable effective management of water resources.

Components

• ESP32 microcontroller for immediate processing of data with Wi-Fi and BLE capabilities
• Sensors: soil moisture, temperature and humidity
• Actuators: relay modules used to control valves for drip irrigation
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi and BLE modules for local and remote control

System Functions:

• Continuous soil moisture sensor data monitoring with data transmitted to the Azure IoT Hub
• ESP32 controllers receive input from the sensors, controlling irrigation based on data from the sensors
• Predictive analytics using weather forecasts with data from the sensors e.g., if rain is forecasted within 48 hours, irrigation will be delayed to conserve water
• Real-time alerts and recommendations sent to the farmer via the mobile app.

• Each of the sensors collects data on soil and other environmental conditions and sends it to the ESP32 controller.
• The data is sent securely to the Azure cloud, where the backend assesses the moisture level of the soil, local weather forecasts, and uses artificial intelligence disease diagnosis.
• The mobile app gives farmers real-time alerts, such as:
  • "Soil Moisture Low - Irrigation Activated"
  • "High Humidity Detected - Possible Fungicidal Risk, Review & Follow Suggestions from Plant Doctor"
• The system opens or closes irrigation valves automatically, providing optimal use of water and resources.
• Farmers can also manually control irrigation or use the mobile app dashboard to gain insight on how crops are progressing.

For six months across different USA-based vineyards and orchards, the benefits of deployed smart technology included

Decreased Crop Losses

By leveraging advanced sensors and analytics, crops lost 45% less due to early disease detection.

Savings

Automated, intelligent irrigation saved 35% of water, therefore, expenses associated with irrigation also decreased.

Higher Profits

Improved yields from crops and decreased variable costs have led to significantly greater revenue for farmers.

Increased Operational Efficiency

Farmers who used automated irrigation and real-time data were able to conserve their time for other farm management tasks.

• Microcontroller: ESP32 for IoT control
• Sensors: Soil moisture, humidity, temperature
• Actuators: Relay-controlled drip irrigation valves
• Mobile App: Flutter (iOS & Android)
• Backend: ASP.NET Core Web API
• Cloud Platform: Microsoft Azure
• Databases: MongoDB (unstructured data), PostgreSQL (structured farm & analytics data)
• AI/ML: Convolutional Neural Networks for disease detection
• Connectivity: BLE, Wi-Fi, MQTT for IoT communication

By demonstrating AgriGuard's ability to integrate traditional farming methods with today’s advanced technology (AI and IoT), we’ve shown that these technologies can dramatically improve the way we farm while enhancing crop yield, efficiency and sustainability.

Farmers are now able to use this tool to monitor their crops in real-time, allow for effective disease monitoring, make better decision about how to use water, fertilizer and pesticides and maximize profit.

Patrick, USA

"As a business in agriculture, we are thrilled with how AgriGuard has changed our crop management processes. AgriGuard's mobile application makes crop management simple due to its user-friendly interface, as well as their “Plant Doctor” feature which utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to provide early detection of potential disease outbreaks.

The use of their Smart Irrigation System has already allowed us to reduce our overall water consumption, proving to be extremely effective. Adequate Infosoft demonstrated their ability to provide us with a solution that met our needs and has been successful in the real world."