THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Now, farmers will get periodic SMSes about water and nutrient content in soil, facilitating timely intervention to address challenges, thanks to a scientist from Kerala.
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Electronic Crop (E-Crop), developed by Santhosh Mithra of the Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (CTCRI), promises to revolutionise the farming sector at a time when low yield, lack of nutrients in soil and climate changes are making life miserable for farmers.
E-Crop, an IoT (Internet of Things) device, can simulate crop growth in real time by calculating calculate nutrients and water requirements in the soil and generating agro -advisory for the crop on a daily basis. Mithra said the crop simulation model-based device provides periodical advice as SMS to growers about water and nutrient (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) requirements.
The Indian Patent Office on March 14, granted patent to E-Crop with retrospective effect from 2014. “I have been studying and developing crop simulation models for almost a decade,” Mithra, CTCRI principal scientist (computer applications), told TNIE. “We developed the device in 2014 and had been testing it. The patent is the official approval for the device,” he said.
As a computer expert, Santhosh wanted to improve yield of tuber crops at first. For this, he collected data from studies done by plant physiologists on how changes in weather, soil nutrients affected the growth of various plant species. “We converted this data into a mathematical equation and compiled a software. We could scientifically predict the complete weather condition of a crop season,” he said.
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‘E-Crop can adapt to any field crop’
The E-Crop-based smart farming has been successfully field-demonstrated for cassava, sweet potato, elephant foot yam and banana. Growers achieved higher yield with nearly 50% saving on nutrients and water,” he said.
Explaining how the device works, Mithra said, “We fix it in a farm. The sensors in it send data about the changing weather to the server through a module connected to the internet. The nutrient content of the soil is tested first and we feed the data to the server.
This predicts the correct quantity of nutrients needed for that particular soil. Meanwhile, farmers, through an app ‘krihi kruthya’, also record and send the data on the soil moisture content to the server. Through this, a farmer can double the yield by using lesser water and fewer nutrients,” he said.
Santhosh, a BSc Agriculture graduate, completed MSc in Computer Applications from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute and got PhD from Gandhigram Rural University in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu. The E-Crop device has been used in rice and vegetable cultivation.
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The Kerala Agricultural University is in touch with CTCRI to develop a simulation method for coconut farming. Mithra said the most important feature of the device is its generic nature which enables it to adapt to any field crop. Discussions are on with IIT Palakkad, Digital University, Kerala, and the Rubber Research Institute of India, Kottayam, he said.
