Summary
This comprehensive review evaluates soil moisture sensing technologies for precision agriculture, distinguishing between invasive approaches (offering high-resolution but requiring careful calibration) and non-invasive methods (enabling large-scale monitoring but facing resolution and cost challenges). The authors examine key performance factors, emerging innovations such as biodegradable sensors and artificial intelligence integration, and identify barriers to adoption—particularly cost and calibration standardisation—that currently limit wider uptake, especially amongst smallholder farmers.
Regional applicability
The review's findings on sensor technology principles and performance factors are globally applicable, including to United Kingdom agriculture. However, the discussion of adoption barriers for smallholder farmers has limited direct relevance to UK commercial farming; UK-specific research would be needed to assess cost-benefit thresholds, calibration infrastructure availability, and policy incentives for sensor adoption in temperate arable and horticultural systems.
Key measures
Classification and evaluation of invasive methods (dielectric sensors, matric potential devices, heat-pulse sensors, microstructured optical fibres) and non-invasive technologies (microwave remote sensing, electromagnetic induction, ground-penetrating radar); assessment of installation methodology, environmental sensitivity, spatial representativeness, and integration with decision-support systems.
Outcomes reported
The review comprehensively evaluates invasive and non-invasive soil moisture sensing technologies, comparing their operating principles, strengths, limitations, and practical agricultural applications. It identifies key performance factors, recent innovations including biodegradable sensors and IoT integration, and barriers to adoption particularly for smallholder farmers.
Topic tags
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