Students made such a device which will tell the farmer brothers, when and how much water to give in the field, and will assess the health of the crop.

FaridabadEven today, most of the farmers in India are dependent on old methods of irrigation, Farmers use their experience to estimate when and in what quantity to water the fields, Many times, if there is less water, the crop starts drying up and if too much water is given, the roots get damaged, Due to this, problems like wastage of water, excessive electricity consumption and decreasing production are continuously increasing, On the other hand, farmers also assess the health of the crop by inspecting it with their own hands, due to which diseases are not detected on time and sometimes the entire crop gets spoiled,

While talking to Local18, student Vansh says that in view of these problems, he and his team have prepared a smart irrigation system, which automatically understands the need of water in the fields and irrigates them accordingly. Vansh is a second year B.Tech student at Lingayas University. He told that such sensors have been installed in this system which measure soil moisture, temperature, salinity and even chlorophyll level of plants. Based on the readings of these sensors, the system itself decides whether there is a need to water the field or not. This saves both water and electricity and also reduces the cost of labor.

Vansh explains that the basic premise of the system is to measure soil moisture. If the resistance appears to be high then it means the soil is dry and if the resistance is less then the soil is wet. This entire process runs through Arduino controller in which voltage comparator and relay are installed. The information received from the sensor first goes to the comparator, then the Arduino processes it and after that instructs the relay whether the motor should be run or kept closed. That is, if the field is dry, the system will automatically turn on the water and if the soil is wet, it will turn off the water.

The cost of smart irrigation systems available in the market ranges from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh. Vansh claims that his base model is being prepared for only Rs 12,000. He told that there are two variants of his system, one controls the motor and the other gets fitted directly into the pipeline with the solenoid valve. One sensor covers one bed and if the system is to be installed in a larger area, multiple sensors can be installed.

The special thing about this system is that it can also be operated through mobile application. Vansh says that a farmer whose house is away from the field can turn water on and off through the app. Settings have also been made in the app according to the type of crop, whether the farmer is growing rice, beet or any other crop, different moisture levels are set for each crop. Not only this, since the system is linked to the weather API, if it is going to rain, it stops the water a day in advance.

Vansh told that it took a lot of time to read and understand this project but it was not that difficult to prepare. He said that this is not his hard work alone but the entire team has made it together. Further, they are working on making this system completely wireless so that farmers can use it on a large scale without any hassle. This technology can prove to be very beneficial especially for small and medium farmers because they get more production and better control at lower costs.