Agriculture is “The backbone of Indian economy”. In 2012-13 agriculture contributed to 13.9% of the total GDP , and employed 47% of the total workforce population. Due to increasing population, the basic need such as food and water is increasing day by day. Thus it is substantial to save these resources and utilize them in an efficient manner. Since water is one of the most important elements in our daily life, we must adapt to efficient ways to utilizing water and save it for future generations. One of method is efficient irrigation management practices for fields. Irrigation water management practices could greatly benefit by the knowledge of moisture in the soil. By knowing the moisture value, we can estimate when to water and how much to water the fields so that there is no over- watering or wilting of crops. Water holding capacity varies from soil to soil. Moreover different varieties of crop require different amounts of water for optimum growth.

Rajul S Patkar, (2016) has developed low cost piezoresistive cantilever platforms for agricultural applications as a part of her Ph.D.Thesis, IIT Bombay. under Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao and Prof. M.S Bagini. Through this project i aim to design a low cost soil moisture sensor by utilizing proposed sensor based technology developed at electrical department, IIT Bombay for small and medium scale farmers that helps them in providing optimum irrigation for crops and thereby increasing productivity.

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• Designing of Portable Soil Moisture Sensor......