National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry

Smart Farm Data Acquisition & Analysis

LoRaWAN wireless sensor networks bring real-time soil and crop monitoring to large-scale open farmland.

15 May 2025 · National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry

Smart Farm Data Acquisition & Analysis

NAFRI's large-scale experimental plots needed wireless, battery-powered sensors capable of monitoring soil and crop conditions across hundreds of metres. Sensornode deployed a LoRaWAN sensor network feeding a real-time Sensorclouds dashboard with full data export for research use.

Background

NAFRI manages large-scale experimental farming plots used to study crop performance under varying soil and environmental conditions. The institute needed a reliable way to monitor multiple parameters across wide open fields — data that would directly inform irrigation timing, fertiliser decisions, and disease risk assessment.

Challenge

Large agricultural plots make wired sensor networks impractical and WiFi coverage unreliable. Manual soil spot-checks produced data that was too infrequent and spatially sparse to drive confident irrigation decisions or detect early signs of crop stress. A scalable, low-power wireless solution was needed that could operate across hundreds of metres of open farmland without grid power infrastructure.

Approach

Sensornode deployed a LoRaWAN-based sensor network across NAFRI's farmland. LoRa End-nodes distributed across the fields monitor soil moisture, soil NPK, soil pH, air temperature, humidity, and leaf wetness simultaneously. Battery power keeps each node self-sufficient. Data transmits back to the Sensorclouds IoT Platform via LoRaWAN Gateway and 4G/LTE backhaul, feeding a real-time analyst dashboard. All readings are stored for historical analysis and can be exported to external research tools.