Analysis and Simulation of an IoT System for Measuring Soil Moisture in Avocado Plantations

Modern technologies have benefited agriculture and are used in various agricultural activities, mainly irrigation, to mitigate water scarcity problems. Water scarcity is of particular concern in avocado cultivation due to its water-intensive nature. This study proposes the use of an Internet of Things (IoT) system for avocado cultivation to enable farmers to identify problems and take preventive measures, thus improving crop productivity. The IoT system used data collected from an avocado plantation in Chile. Factors affecting the yield of this crop were studied to validate the proposed system, in addition to simulating harvesting operations, thus demonstrating the relevance of this technology for modern agriculture. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using a low-cost IoT architecture in precision agriculture, thus improving its performance, as well as the importance of collecting data that affect this agriculture in order to support the development of crops through simulations. The conclusions show the need to create an ecosystem that allows the implementation of these technologies, which implies strengthening capacities in terms of knowledge and communication infrastructure, especially considering the rugged terrain of avocado plantations in Chile.