The shortage of freshwater resources around the globe gives rise to the need for their optimum usage, real-time soil moisture monitoring is essential in the irrigation decision support system.

More water wastage can be reduced by watering based on plants’ needs and not just watering considering only the volumetric water content of the soil, which is not a true reflection of what plants need to yield maximumly in quality and quantity.

This project was developed, calibration and comparison of the affordable real-time and self-powered systems for soil moisture monitoring with a commercial sensor were carried out at the soil physics laboratory of the Institute of Water and Environmental Management, Faculty of Agricultural, Food Science, and Environmental Management University of Debrecen, Hungary in February 2022.

Double reciprocal mathematical model: Y = 1/(a + b/X) calibration curve was the most suitable to describe the laboratory experimental of Agrotronic instrument behaviour in soil, which gave the sensor a more sensibility as moisture increases. It effectively works between oven-dry and field capacity states of the soil particle.

The accuracy of the Agrotropic instrument is ±0.10, ±0.09, and ±0.08 %VWC for soils samples 1, 2, and 3, respectively and it is associated with the half distance between upper and lower bounds.

The efficiency increases as the moisture content increases in the soil. The intelligence of the proposed solution is based on an intelligent algorithm and soil parameters (field capacity point, the water stress (MAD) points, and soil matric potential). The system is fully functional, and the prediction results are very encouraging.