EE388/EE399 BE ENG PROJECT PROPOSAL FORM

1. Project title:

Smart Micro Irrigation system for Fiji Agriculture

Supervisor: Dr. F M Rabiul Islam
Co-supervisors: Dr. Kabir Mamun
2. Nature of project:
Semester I
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Design/Development
Synthesis
Research
Data analysis
Cost analysis
Risk analysis
Computer simulation
Other (please specify)
Semester II

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Hardware Implementation
Software Implementation
Prototyping
Test/Verification
Design optimization
Documentation/User manual/Help file
Other (please specify)

3. Total number of students per project (2 3 max): 2

4. Project description/specifications:

Introduction
Among various agro-ecological constraints faced by the farmers of different regions of Fiji, the availability of
water in dry season for crop production is one of the major issues. Although having a variety of methods and
tools developed to schedule irrigation, farmer adoption of irrigation scheduling techniques is still limited.
Identification of limitations and requirements for use by farmers and managers is important in the selection of
the appropriate scheduling methods. Some of the limitations and difficulties on applying irrigation scheduling
tools at farm level are listed as follows: Conditions of limited water resources, Variability of rainfall, Water
stress indicators, Irrigation efficiency, Costs and incentives, Technology costs and Knowledge transfer. These
difficulties can be overcome using a suitable micro-irrigation system that are smart in water use efficiency, low
cost and simple in design, operation and maintenance so as to encourage the farm-holders of the country to
adopt widely.
Fiji has not tried to create either massive irrigation infrastructure or undertake large scale measures of soil water
conservation in hilly regions (i.e. steep slopes and mid to lower mid-altitudes) which requires big investment,

larger involvement of stakeholders/various development agencies and long term to establish. With the core
objective of demonstrating the comparative advantage of improved micro-irrigation methods over traditional
irrigation practices for the hill slope farm-holders and to bring more area under short duration marketable crops
(i.e. vegetables) this proposal has put forward the idea of undertaking an action research project on smart
micro- irrigation aspects by installing various sensors and smart devices on a pilot basis in farm holders plots on
different slopes, altitudes and crops combination so as to evaluate the systems on the basis of water use
efficiency, crop yield and net farm return and farmers feedback. This action research will also analyze the
entire value chain of smart micro-irrigation system (SMIS) in Fiji. Figure 1, represents a schematic overview of
the overall SMIS.

Project Brief/Objectives
Enable farmers to schedule watering to minimize crop water stress and maximize yields.
Reduce farmer's costs of water and labor through less irrigation, thereby making maximum use of soil
moisture storage.
Lower fertilizer costs by holding surface runoff and deep percolation to a minimum.
Maximize net profit by increasing crop yields and crop quality.
Minimize water-logging problems by reducing the drainage requirements.

Figure 1: A schematic overview of the proposed SMISDeliverables and scope

Project objectives and goals:

The objective of this project was to design a small-scale automated irrigation system that would use water in a
more efficient way, in order to prevent water loss and minimize the cost of labour.
Objectives:
Project objectives are laid by as follows:
To identify locations suitable for micro irrigation systems in high slopes and altitudes.
To study the feasibility of different types of drip and sprinkler in slopes and altitudes
To prepare the water budget both at watershed and farm level
To work out Water Use Efficiency, Benefit Cost Ratio and Yield rates and Net Return potential for farmers for
different SMI systems installed in varied slope/ altitude/ crop mix.
To study the economics and feasibility of up-scaling them in other locations
To analyze the entire value chain of SMI systems delivery mechanism in Fiji.

To construct model farm for experimental setup (i.e. Sensor/Receiver installation within the selective network).
To develop an Intelligent system for real time monitoring and control hardware design
Algorithm development based on the historical and raw sensor data.
Software development for cloud computing.
User interface development via online and mobile application.

Goals:
The final outcome will be Smart Micro Irrigation System with the following consideration:
Installation costs;
Water savings;
Human intervention;
Reliability;
Power consumption;
Maintenance;

5. Any special skills required:

Electrical power systems, Mathematical modeling, Sensor design, Control Systems, Logic and programming.
Research & development, design, build and test
Formal reporting on research findings