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Farming by the Numbers

LoRaWAN for Oil Palm Soil Monitoring: An Introduction to Smarter Farming

✅ Last reviewed: April 2026 As agriculture advances with the global adoption of Industry 4.0, farmers are reaping the benefits of modern technology. The integration of the Internet of Things…

Ranjeet Natarajan
Ranjeet Natarajan January 30, 2025 8 min read 1,523 words
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✅ Last reviewed: April 2026

As agriculture advances with the global adoption of Industry 4.0, farmers are reaping the benefits of modern technology. The integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) in farming helps monitor crop and soil conditions in real time, making it easier to improve farm management. However, for large-scale farms like oil palm estates, which are often in remote areas, a challenge arises—how can we maintain effective wireless communication over vast areas? That’s where Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) steps in. LoRaWAN provides an efficient, low-power solution for monitoring critical factors like soil electrical conductivity (EC) and pH levels in oil palm nurseries.

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Let’s explore how LoRaWAN can enhance oil palm soil monitoring and optimize farm operations.

Table of Contents-

High-quality visualization of lorawan for oil palm soil monitoring: an introduction to smarter farming featuring advanced farming techniques, hydroponics, and sustainable agriculture.

Precision Agriculture and the Role of IoT

Precision agriculture is a farming approach that tailors care for crops by monitoring and responding to their needs based on data collected from specific locations. IoT plays a significant role in this by allowing wireless sensors to track essential variables like soil EC and pH levels.

In oil palm nurseries, ensuring optimal soil conditions is crucial for growing healthy seedlings. Yet, managing these vast areas can be challenging due to limited access to cellular networks. Here’s where LoRaWAN shines—it’s a perfect fit for outlying, rural regions with poor cellular connectivity, offering long-range, low-power communication that allows real-time data transfer.

Actionable Tip: Farmers looking to optimize oil palm cultivation should consider IoT solutions with LoRaWAN to continuously monitor and adjust soil conditions for healthier crops.

Why LoRaWAN for Oil Palm Nurseries?

LoRaWAN stands out in large-scale farming because it offers:

  • Long-distance communication: Covering large nursery areas of up to several kilometers.
  • Low power consumption: Making it cost-effective and efficient.
  • Minimal maintenance: Requiring less human intervention, especially in remote regions.

In this study, LoRaWAN was successfully tested across different setups (nurseries, plantations, and urban areas) to monitor EC and pH levels in soil. The results showed strong signal strength, even over long distances, with minimal interference. This makes it an ideal choice for oil palm nurseries, which require constant monitoring of soil conditions to ensure optimal growth.

Actionable Tip: To achieve strong LoRaWAN transmission, aim for higher gateway elevation and a clear line of sight between sensors.

How LoRaWAN Works in Oil Palm Farms

The LoRaWAN network for soil monitoring is designed in four main parts:

  1. Sensor Nodes: Placed in the field to monitor EC and pH levels.
  2. Gateway: Receives data from the sensor nodes and forwards it to the network.
  3. Network Server: Processes the data and sends it to the application server.
  4. Application Server: Displays the data in an accessible format for farmers.

In the field, sensors attached to LoRa nodes (small devices) collect data on soil conditions. The data is transmitted wirelessly to a gateway, then uploaded to a cloud-based network where it’s stored and analyzed.

Actionable Tip: Use low-cost hardware like Arduino for sensor nodes and Raspberry Pi for gateways to build a LoRaWAN network on your farm.

Soil Monitoring: Why EC and pH Matter

Monitoring soil EC and pH levels is vital because these factors affect the availability of nutrients to plants:

  • Electrical Conductivity (EC) measures the salt levels in soil. High salt levels can prevent plants from absorbing water and nutrients.
  • pH Levels determine whether the soil is too acidic or alkaline, influencing how well plants can take up nutrients.

For oil palms, the ideal pH range is between 5.4 and 6.0, while EC levels should be below 1000 mhos/cm. Monitoring these factors ensures that crops receive balanced nutrients and prevents issues like water stress or nutrient deficiencies.

Actionable Tip: Regularly check the EC and pH of your soil to ensure healthy crop growth and maximize yield.

LoRaWAN Implementation in Oil Palm Nurseries

To implement LoRaWAN in your farm, you can use simple hardware and software configurations:

  1. LoRa Node: A small device that monitors EC and pH levels.
  2. Gateway: A Raspberry Pi configured with a LoRa GPS HAT to receive data from the nodes.
  3. Cloud Platform: Using services like The Things Network (TTN) to store and analyze the collected data.

Actionable Tip: Set up the gateway at a higher elevation and within 1-2 km from sensor nodes to maximize data transmission efficiency.

Summary for Instagram Reels and Infographics

  • What is LoRaWAN? A low-power, long-range communication system for monitoring large farms.
  • Why use it? It’s perfect for remote areas with limited cellular coverage and allows real-time soil monitoring.
  • How it helps: Tracks crucial soil metrics like electrical conductivity (EC) and pH, ensuring healthy crops.
  • Key takeaway: LoRaWAN improves efficiency, reduces labor, and ensures optimal growing conditions for oil palms.

Table: LoRaWAN Setup Components for Oil Palm Monitoring

ComponentPurpose
LoRa NodeCollects EC and pH data from the soil
LoRa GatewayReceives data from the nodes and sends to the cloud
Network ServerProcesses and forwards data
Application ServerDisplays real-time data for farmers to view

With these tools in place, farmers can effortlessly monitor the health of their crops and respond to their needs more efficiently!

This text describes the setup and signal propagation testing of a LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network) system for soil monitoring in an oil palm plantation environment. The main components of the system include:

The placement of the gateway in environments with dense foliage, such as oil palm plantations, affects LoRa signal strength. Proper elevation and clear line of sight between nodes and the gateway are essential to maintain good signal quality.

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Node Setup:

A node is registered in The Things Network (TTN) using Activation by Personalisation (ABP).

Two session keys (network session key and application session key) and the device address are hardcoded into the node’s sketch.

The gateway is registered in TTN using the Gateway EUI and operates on a frequency of 921.2 MHz, with ttn-router-asia-se selected.

Data Processing:

Data received from the LoRa node appears as raw bytes in TTN and is decoded to display in ASCII format.

The data is visualized using Node-RED, a flow-based development tool. Node-RED retrieves data from TTN and displays it on a dashboard UI in the form of charts and gauges. This visualization enables users to monitor environmental factors like soil electrical conductivity (EC) and pH.

Signal Propagation Testing:

Signal quality was tested in various environments, such as young oil palm plantations, nurseries, and urban areas. In the young oil palm plantation, tests measured RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) and SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio) values at different distances from the gateway.

The LoRa gateway was placed on a 7-meter high building, giving it a total elevation of 88 meters. The tests covered a maximum distance of 223 meters.

Results showed that RSSI values were consistent, but signal degradation occurred in areas where the foliage blocked the line of sight between the node and the gateway. The wide fronds of the oil palm trees caused significant attenuation of the signal.

Conclusion:

The Signal Propagation Test at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) nursery aimed to evaluate LoRaWAN performance in a 6-hectare oil palm nursery with seedlings 12–18 months old and 1–2 meters tall. The gateway was placed 2.5 m high on a hut, totaling 24.5 m in elevation. The signal was tested by positioning end-node devices at different distances.

Key Findings:

  • Signal Propagation: LoRa transmission covered the entire nursery area (6 hectares) without packet loss, even in the presence of small obstacles like storage buildings and trees. The signal reached up to 261.01 m in the nursery, but beyond 276.51 m in a young oil palm plantation, no signal was received, highlighting the importance of a clear line of sight.
  • RSSI and SNR: As distance increased, RSSI values decreased from -91 to -104 dBm. Positive SNR was observed at all node points except N6, likely due to interference from a storage building obstructing the line of sight between the node and the gateway. Sparse tree planting allowed for better signal penetration.

The test concluded that LoRaWAN effectively covers nursery areas with minimal interference, making it a feasible solution for agricultural monitoring systems.

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Ranjeet Natarajan
Ranjeet Natarajan

Contributing writer at Agriculture Novel — telling the stories that sustain us.

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