## 5 Experimental Results
### Monitoring of Environmental Parameters  
The IoT sensor devices on a farm collect vast amounts of environmental data, through which they are sent to ground gateways every 1 h, and then the obtained data are collected and transmitted by a drone to the cloud for storage and analysis each 12 h. In this subsection, smart farming's environmental monitoring of sensing temperature, humidity, soil moisture, rain level, and solar radiation are presented. Along with these environmental monitoring, automated and human-made sets of actions have been highlighted to apply smart actions for precision agriculture. It is worth mentioning that Figures 12-16 are representative experimental results from massive results that we collected in the field in one year. Figure 12: Experimental results gained from the S-THB-M008 temperature sensor. Figures 12 and 13 show temperature and humidity reading, respectively, from its relevant sensor in a period from March 2020 to March 2021 in Medenine, Tunisia. Clearly, during early summer (June to September), temperature ranges from 25 \({}^{\circ}\)C to 40 \({}^{\circ}\)C, while in autumn and winter temperature, it reaches below 20. Another observation is in December and January when the temperature reaches single digits, which represents the coldest period of the year, whereas July and August have the highest temperatures. The average humidity is usually linked to temperature, which depends on the actual wind and the sunshine amount and temperature. Crops have minimum and maximum temperatures at which growth developments are affected. Thus, examples of automated and human-made sets of actions that can be driven from the sensed temperature data include the following:  
* At minimum temperatures (e.g. early spring), farmers are advised to focus on seeds germination, and watering should be discrete since this period is favorable for growing crops;
* During the periods with temperatures below the minimum temperatures (e.g. winter or autumn) planting processes should stop;
* At maximum temperatures (e.g. summer), water sprinklers in farms can increase the watering of plants and should be continuous through the summer;
* High humidity and temperatures are more favorable for the spread of crop pests and diseases; thus, farmers are advised to consider various strategies such as spraying chemicals on plants. * Plantings and quarterly grains that are suggested for the Medenine area in case of high humidity and temperature conditions are Apricot, apples, Figs, Peaches, Grapes, and Almonds. Figure 13: Experimental results gained from the S-THB-M008 humidity sensor. Monitoring meteorological parameters such as soil moisture is an essential stage of agriculture. Figure 14 shows the soil moisture reading from its relevant sensor in a period from March 2020 to March 2021 in Medenine, Tunisia. Soil moisture reflects the water that is held in the spaces between soil particles, where having these data would help in understanding soil temperature, soil nutrients, soil density, and viscosity. It is noticeable from experiential results that soil moisture is overlapped with rainfall and/or water irrigation, where autumn and winter seasons represent peak values due to high rainfall. Therefore, smart actions can be considered based on soil moisture data include the following:  
* Water sprinklers in farms can automatically be on or off based on the level of soil moisture to irrigate the crops;
* Farmers can make the right decision to spray pesticides or apply fertilizers that are based on the current state of the soil moisture;
* Soil management can be gained via on-site soil monitoring (nutrient analysis, soil erosion, soil organic carbon, and insects) and then choosing the right plants for the right lands;
* Plantings and quarterly grains that are suggested for the Medenine area in case of middle-range soil moisture conditions are potatoes, pomegranate, orange, and lemon. Figure 14: Experimental results gained from S-SMC-M005 refer to soil moisture smart sensor.