Applying Internet of Things in Monitoring and Control of an Irrigation System for Sustainable Agriculture for Small-Scale Farmers in Rural Communities

The effect of climate change became apparent to the people of Southern Africa in the E1 Nino event of 2015–16 farming season which lead to a regional scale drought never seen before in close to 30 years. It was characterized by significant rainfall deficits in virtually all Countries of the region. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that southern Africa's maize harvest for the 2015/2016 season was 15 percent lower than the average for the last five years. In Zambia, the Ministry of Agriculture reported that maize production fell from 3.3 million tons in the previous harvest to 2.6 million tons in 2016. It said the average harvest per hectare for maize fell by 26 percent, from 2.36 metric tons to 1.75 metric tons. The vulnerable people in villages were the worst affected because farming is their livelihood. This paper discusses the possible implementation of a simple, cost effective Internet of Things (IoT) solution which these communities can employ in order to mitigate the impact of global climate change.