Soil and environmental monitoring on a vineyard in the Guadalupe valley as a tool for processes of precision viticulture based on ZigBee technology to improve the e-agriculture

Abstract

This paper presents the design and field tests of a system to remotely monitor environmental variables in a vineyard in the Guadalupe Valley, Mexico. In particular, the environmental variables are temperature, humidity, and luminosity, some of them monitored in the subsoil. These variables affect the quality of the grapes, and these quality parameters are also different according to each grape variety according to the different stages of the crop. The presented prototype is based on the ZigBee technology and is part of the E-Agriculture process, particularly related to Precision Agriculture concept. In addition, measurements were made with the early-adopters in order to determine the performance of the prototype and consider the feedback to improve the overall performance. Finally, the prototype shows an adequate performance with respect to the measurements of the environmental variables, the reliability of the interconnection, the storage and presentation of the data. Also, there are some findings that could improve the performance and installation of the prototype to enhance the E-Agriculture process and the widespread use in the Guadalupe Valley through a sectorization process according to the grape variety crops