Datamule for Agricultural Applications

We describe the construction of a data mule platform running a set of services useful for small and marginal farmers. Firstly, farmers are provided information about their standing crop by instrumenting their farm lands with soil moisture sensors and measuring the associated water stress. The platform is also equipped with market prices, seed availability, latest farming practices, of pest and disease attacks, rainfall etc. Thus, the idea is to improve the livelihood of these farmers by useful information and creating an advice system so as to reap maximum benefits in terms of yield/harvest. The data mule acquires data from several sources such as: (a) soil moisture probes installed in an individual's farmland, (b) Retrieving market price and other information from official websites etc. The mule delivers the information to the farmers' mobile phones via Wi-Fi, free of cost. The data mule is powered to work by harvesting energy from bicycle dynamo and solar panel. A mobile application is developed for Android and for Symbian phones as well. The phones support local audio language for ease of use.