Microcontroller-based water control system for evaluating crop water use characteristics

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Science
• Plant Physiology
• Environmental Science

Background:

• Climate change and increasing agricultural water demand pose risks to global food security.
• Assessing crop water-use efficiency (WUE) and stress tolerance is vital for developing resilient crops.
• Traditional WUE assessment methods are low-throughput and labor-intensive.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a cost-effective, automated system for real-time monitoring of plant water consumption.
• To enable high-throughput evaluation of crop varietal differences in water use under various stress conditions.

Main Methods:

• A microcontroller-based system integrating automated pot weighing and Wi-Fi enabled real-time water consumption monitoring.
• Validation using major crops (rice, soybean, maize) under salt, waterlogging, and drought stress.
• Long-term monitoring to assess varietal differences and morphological adaptations.

Main Results:

• Salt-tolerant rice showed higher water consumption and growth under salinity compared to salt-sensitive varieties.
• Waterlogged soybean exhibited reduced water use and growth.
• Significant WUE variations were observed among rice varieties, and maize showed altered shoot-to-root ratios under drought.

Conclusions:

• The developed system effectively identifies varietal differences in crop response to drought, waterlogging, and salinity.
• This high-throughput, long-term evaluation system facilitates the development of water-saving and stress-tolerant crop varieties.