IIT-Ropar develops automatic irrigation, fertilisation system

Arun Sharma
Tribune News Service
Ropar, March 26

Mahendra Sakare, assistant prof at the IIT-Ropar, along with a team of students, has developed an automatic irrigation and fertilisation system in fields. This will help farmers save water and reduce the cost of production substantially.

Sakare said trials of the system developed by a team of students comprising Nikhil Jain, Nitin Yadav, Jitesh Kumar, Mrityunjay Kumar, Mohit Kumar and Shreyansh Shrivastava from the Department of Electrical Engineering had been completed successfully and more features were being incorporated into it.

Traditional agricultural methods cause excessive wastage of water and fertilisers and using them in large amount lead to degradation of both soil and crop quality.

The internet of things (IOT) based system sprinkles only the required amount of water into the soil. It keeps track of soil’s moisture content and stops water flow when the desired level of moisture level is reached for crop’s proper growth.

It also measures content of various nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the soil before preparing a solution containing these nutrients in the required amount to fulfill the deficiency of these nutrients in the ground for the proper growth of any particular crop. This fertiliser solution is then sprinkled into the soil.

Sakare said a farmer could control irrigation and fertilisation of fields while sitting at a far-off place. Also, wastage of water and fertilisers will be reduced to a large extent. The initial investment in the system would cost below Rs 10,000, hence, even a small farmer could afford it, he added.