Automated and Sustainable Drip Irrigation System in Rural Nicaragua

Abstract

Despite being a water-rich country, Nicaragua struggles to secure clean water access for many of its residents. In addition to distributional and water quality issues, a prolonged drought affecting all regions of the country has been a challenge to ensuring rural water needs. The purpose of this project is to create a user friendly, reliable, and sustainable hardware/software system to automate farmland irrigation in Nicaragua. The goal of the system is to be simple enough to be used by farmers, yet effective and reliable. The system would help farmers save resources and improve the quality of their land. A water irrigation system embedded with an electronic micro-controller to allow efficient drip irrigation and assist growing of agricultural crops during periods of inadequate rainfall, also the extra access to electricity through a solar powered system A sustainable irrigation solution will enable community members to create more economic opportunities and small businesses to better support themselves near home.