1College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Shalimar, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir (India)
2Faculty of Horticulture, Division of Fruit Science, SKUAST-K
3Faculty of Agriculture, SKUAST-K, Wadura, Sopore
Agricultural water wastage is major challenge in present era because 70% of fresh water available on earth is alone utilized by agriculture and majority of it gets wasted due to improper application. To address this issue, Sensor based Automatic Irrigation Control Mechanism was developed to maintain consistent soil moisture levels to optimize water usage in agriculture. This study compares the water use efficiency of an automated irrigation system with a traditional manual irrigation method through a field experiment. The automated system continuously monitors soil moisture and applies water as needed, minimizing waste. The traditional method, however, relies on manual water regulation based on fixed schedules, often leading to inefficiencies. Results showed that the automated system saved 2024 liters of water which is 27.29% reduction in water use compared to the manually regulated drip irrigation system. The automated system maintained consistent soil moisture across various depths, while the manual method shows significant variations in soil suction. The soil suction was significantly affected by varying atmospheric factors viz relative humidity and temperature where are inversely related with each other thus influences irrigation scheduling to greater extent in varying climatic conditions.
Automation, Controlled environment, Soil moisture, Traditional irrigation, Water useefficiency
