Wireless Sensor Network for Monitoring Climatic Variables and Greenhouse Gases in a Sugarcane Crop

Abstract

In Colombia, sugarcane is one of the most important crops with about 235,000 hectares cultivated at the end of 2017. Therefore, establishing and implementing research projects pursuing objectives as the design of agricultural production procedures which allow more productivity, cleanness, and efficient processes are welcome. We present a wireless sensor network proposal oriented to deal with the lack of monitoring in some agronomic/climatic variables. The prototype is intended to measure variables such as temperature and soil/air moisture. Also measured are soil pH and the most relevant greenhouse gases, i.e., carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. We focused our work in measuring the greenhouse gases to analyze the values in parts per million, seeking to establish a reference point to potentially calculate the carbon footprint associated to the sugarcane cultivation.

The closed-chamber technique was used for the measurements and the initial results showed that the gases concentrations were higher outside the chamber: 376 ppm of CO₂, 1.31 ppm of CH₄, and 0.504 ppm of N₂O (outside) compared with the values inside them: 291 ppm of CO₂, 1.01 ppm of CH₄, and 0.163 ppm of N₂O (inside) as average values. Nevertheless, bias was observed during the measurements due to the high current demand the gas sensors needed. We expect to solve these issues and increase the amount of measurements for upcoming releases of the presented prototype.