Abstract: Wireless sensor network technology can provide optimal and integrated solution to distributed data collection, delivery and analysis in farmland. An infield soil moisture and temperature monitoring system was developed which meets the application requirement in farmland environment. This system consists of the soil monitoring wireless sensor network and remote data center. In the wireless sensor network, the sensor node is developed using JN5121 module, an IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee wireless microcontroller. The sink nodes for aggregating and dilevering network data is based on ARM9 processor platform in order to meet the requirements of highperformance. A GPRS module is integrated into the sink node for long distance communication. In the remote data center, the management software running on the host computer is developed for realtime data receiving and logging based on database management method. It also uses ArcEngine, an embedded GIS developer kit to realize online spatial analysis of infield data. This monitoring system may provide an effective research tool for spatial analysis and for irrigation decision making in precision algriculture.

Key words: agriculture engineering, soil moisture and temperature monitoring system, wireless sensor network, ZigBee, precision agriculture