How to use backscatter radio for soil sensor network.

The ever growing population and climate change has put pressure on food producers to come up with strategies to feed the populace using smart means so as not to disrupt the ecosystem. The internet of things has delved into agriculture,thus making it easy to monitor agricultural activities with sensors, radio frequency identification, drones and robots. The use of various gadgets to facilitate increased productivity has pushed technology into the agricultural land to ensure food security. One of such innovative method is the use of backscatter radio for soil sensor, the Soil Moisture Scatter Radio Networking with Low Power by Spyridon-Nektarios Daskalakis. The soil sensor switches half of an etched PCB bowtie antenna in and out of a circuit at a frequency proportional to soil moisture. A carrier signal from a separate transmitter is reflected off the alternately loaded and unloaded antenna, picking up subcarriers with a frequency proportional to soil moisture.