Building a smart irrigation system to evaluate water use to support agricultural productivity and water conservation in the Kandahar region of Afghanistan.
MIT D-Lab class
Introduction to Energy in Global Development (2.651 / EC.711 / EC.791 (G)) - Spring 2025
Country
Afghanistan
Community partners
Ecology and Conservation Organization of Afghanistan (ECO-A), Kandahar University, Andrew Scanlon (Ireland), Jon Coe (Australia), Sardar Amiri (Afghanistan)
Team
- Celestina Pint (UG, 2027 Materials Sci. and Eng.)
- Arnold Su (MEng, 2025 Mathematics; Computer Sci.)
- Roderick Huang (MEng, 2025 Mathematics; Computer Sci.)
- Aaron Zhu (MEng, 2025 Electrical Eng.; Analytics)
Problem statement
Farmers in Afghanistan's Kandahar region seek a simple, scalable micro-irrigation system and evaluation method to revive agriculture in family kitchen gardens and larger farms after facing prolonged drought, post-war challenges, and economic instability. Kandahar is a culturally significant region for ethnic Pashtuns and historically served as a trading center for fruits and agriculture. However, decades of war and political unrest left the region critically lacking in basic needs such as food. As a result, there is an urgent need to revitalize and modernize agriculture in this region.
Contributions
Our micro-irrigation system is designed with two components: a sensor kit and a micro-irrigation system prototype. The sensor kit is intended for real-world testing in Kandahar, where it will assist in providing data on soil moisture, flow rate, and environmental conditions. Meanwhile, the irrigation prototype is customized for a small setup, demonstrating how our sensor kit can efficiently manage water use in small-scale agricultural applications.
The sensor kit is designed to perform three key functions:
- Measuring the performance of the irrigation system
- Providing a user interface
- Providing actionable feedback
An irrigation system’s goal is to ensure sufficient water is reaching the crops. Thus, to assess the performance of the irrigation system, we identified soil moisture and water flow as the key metrics. The sensor kit includes four soil moisture sensors, one water flow rate sensor, and one temperature sensor. All sensor wires are enclosed in a protective box to be user-friendly and prevent damage. An OLED screen is included to display real-time readings from the sensors visually. Additionally, all collected data is uploaded to an application for further analysis and monitoring.
Our team’s micro-irrigation system was developed as a small-scale prototype using approximately 2 cubic meters of soil, serving as a proof of concept for broader farming scales. Installed in a custom-built 18 in by 24 in by 10 in garden box (approximately 65 lbs), it’s designed to simulate a small-scale version that can be tested in realistic but manageable conditions. Within the garden box, we planted one row each of spinach and chives to evaluate the system’s functionality and accuracy. These crops allow us to test our sensor kit in a live setting, monitoring all necessary metrics.
Next steps
Although our team is not able to travel to Afghanistan to move our project forward in person, we envision many ways that future teams can iterate on our design and improve the system we created. For the garden bed, future teams can adjust the soil type to represent the soil of the Kandahar region more accurately. For the sensor kit, the main challenge for future teams will be to find or develop more accurate and consistent soil moisture sensors. Moreover, we believe that performing formal user research to assess the usability and accessibility of our solution for farmers, households, and university students alike would be a valuable addition to the project.
Contact
Josh Maldonado, Introduction to Energy in Global Development Instructor
Khadija Ghanizada, Introduction to Energy in Global Development Teaching Assistant
