Automated irrigation and rainwater harvest for sustainable community farming: a review

Community farming is an initiative set out by the Malaysian Government to help the low-income group in reducing their household expenditure thus increasing the income of the members. The farm is cultivated in a designated land area near the residence by the community members. Although a fully automated system is available for mass plantation and agriculture industry, the same implementation in community farming is limited since community farming is relatively new and meant for sustenance rather than profit. In Malaysia recently, irrigation efficiency is approximated at 40% to 50% and becomes a challenge to water resource sustainability. It is crucial to study the feasibility of upgrading the community farming to make it more standalone, automated and easier to be cared for by the community members. The objective of this paper is to present a review on the Rainwater Harvesting System (RWHS) sustainability and automated irrigation method suitable for implementation in community farms. This paper further highlights the importance of introducing automated systems in community farms to benefit and improve the economy and social aspects of low-income group earners. The result shows the adoption of RWHS for irrigation purposes in various countries gives positive impacts on sustainability. The study also shows that various methods have been implemented in the agriculture industry in terms of irrigation including timer based, sensor based and plant based in combination with controllers such as Arduino or PIC microcontroller. Sensor based presented a precise watering system which takes into account parameters such as soil moisture, temperature, humidity and overwatering. Malaysia with high annual rainfall and installation of automated irrigation with rainwater harvesting will improve community farms which are generally located in urban areas without natural water resources. The notable contribution of this paper is highlighting the importance of improving community farms in terms of technological advancement with the implementation of automated irrigation and rainwater harvest integration. This will provide a sustainable solution for community farms in Malaysia.