Tag: farm machinery

Researchers at IIT Kharagpur use Diffused Reflectance Spectroscopy based Rapid Soil Testing method for Agri-small holder farms

In a recent study by IIT Kharagpur in collaboration with the International Crops Research Institute of Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, has developed and validated the efficiency of Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS) models for high throughput soil analysis for impact at scale in small-holder systems.

Years of research at the Agricultural and Food Engineering (AgFE) Department of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur shows that Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS) may be used safely for rapid soil assessment. Conventional soil testing laboratories use wet chemistry-based soil testing methods that are time consuming and can become expensive when a large number of samples to be analysed. On the other hand, spectral reflectance of a soil sample can be rapidly measured in a non-contact mode and the results can be transformed to multiple soil parameters using calibrated spectral algorithms. Once the Diffused Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS) algorithms are developed for a region, the algorithms may be used for analyzing soil samples collected from different fields and at different time of sampling. The technology is rapid, non-invasive and involves no chemical use, for estimating multiple soil parameters.

The DRS approach was shown to be effective for estimating 8 out of 17 soil parameters with as high as 80% accuracy. Specifically, the soil test crop response (STCR) ratings estimated through the DRS approach matched the wet chemistry-based STCR ratings to the tune of 43 to 100%. “This is a great opportunity because most nutrient management strategies are based on STCR ratings and these ratings may be safely estimated using the DRS approach in a very rapid manner,” says Professor B. S. Das from IIT Kharagpur. More than 60% of the new samples estimated with more than 70% accuracy indicates a huge opportunity to apply the DRS technique at different spatial and temporal scales. The partnership with ICRISAT has been very productive in developing these innovative methods for rapid soil health assessment, Prof Das further added.

“ICRISAT has been at the forefront of global efforts to advance sensor-based technologies,” says Dr. Jacqueline Hughes, Director General of ICRISAT. “Our recent work with NIRS-based spectroscopy for soil nutrient analysis, along with this pioneering research towards DRS models for soil analysis, ensures our commitment to deliver rapid and cost-effective alternatives to resource-poor agriculture systems.”

This is a step forward in making soil testing a feasibility through remote sensing. As the IEEE Standards Association embarks on standardizing soil spectroscopy as a standard method of soil testing (P4005 – Standards and protocols for soil spectroscopy), the efforts at IIT Kharagpur is a step forward in making soil testing through reflectance spectroscopy a reality. Developing methods for rapid soil testing for the benefit of millions of smallholder farmers of our country resonates well with IIT Kharagpur’s long commitment for low cost soil analysis for improved agricultural practices.

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By : Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

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Automating sugarcane plantation to boost profitability

Researchers at IIT Kharagpur have developed devices for automating a range of functions for planting sugarcane buds, fitted with an autonomous fungicide application with the aim to reduce labour hours and raw material wastage. 

Sugarcane is a global industrial crop popular for the production of sugar, bioenergy, paper, ethanol, electricity etc. The economic importance of the crop in India is paramount with the country registering 17% of global sugarcane production, second only to Brazil. But each year the farmers are losing excess cane stalk as seed material due to conventional cultivation practice which is also labour and time-intensive thus increasing the overall production cost. 

A view of a bud separated from sugarcane stalk

The sugarcane planting system, developed by the research team at the Dept. of Agricultural and Food Engineering, consists of a machine vision-based bud cutting machine and a tractor operated bud planting machine. 

Bud cutting machine

The bud cutting machine involves three sub-mechanisms – a sugarcane feeding system, a machine vision system for the identification of sugarcane buds and a mechatronic system for cutting the identified bud.

  • The first sub-mechanism feeds the whole-cane stalk towards the imaging and cutting zone.
  • The second sub-mechanism identifies the bud location on a cane stalk by means of machine vision, which directs the third sub-mechanism to regulate the decision for cutting action.
  • The third sub-mechanism is the assembly of mechatronically integrated cutting tools that removes the bud portion from the whole cane.

The tractor operated bud planting machine is also developed for the planting of the prepared sugarcane buds and application of fungicide. It consists of a two-row bud planting mechanism and a sensor-based autonomous fungicide application system. 

The functions of the machine include opening a wide soil furrow using furrow openers, picking the buds from the seedbox with the help of a metering mechanism, placing the buds into the soil through a seed delivery tube, sensing of the placed bud and automatic application of fungicide on the bud. 

The mechanism would allow reusing 80% of the internodes generated during the process for sugar production and other mainstream purposes.

Output of the bud cutting system

“This technology holds a significant potential at industrial and local levels especially in countries like India that are among the major producers but lacks automation for input developments. This system may further assist in reducing the net planting material requirements against the conventional methods adopted for sugarcane plantation. We can save the excess amount of cane stalk, trashed in the conventional plantation thus reducing the sizable loss of raw material,” said Prof. Virendra K Tewari, Director of the Institute and Professor of farm machinery, who led this product innovation.

The throughput capacity of the developed system with a single cutting unit can range up to 1418 buds/hour.

“Through this automation technology, we can generate seeding material for a hectare of land in 10-15 hours which otherwise takes about 60-90 hours when relying on conventional (manual) methods. This could not only turn out to be a cost-saving opportunity for the farming community but a capacitive solution for sugarcane cultivation through bud chips as well,” added Prof. Tewari.

Conceptual diagram of the autonomous fungicide spraying system

Another area that is addressed through this technology is the autonomous fungicide application which is integrated into the tractor operated planting machine. To protect the seed from soil-borne disease, a sensor-based spraying system has been designed and integrated with the planter to apply a predefined amount of fungicide over the bud and the surrounding soil. 

Dr. Brajesh Nare who carried out his doctoral work at IIT Kharagpur and currently working as a scientist at ICAR-CPRI Shimla remarked, “The autonomous system was developed for spot application of liquid fungicide at the time of placement of the bud in the furrow. The function of this system is to detect the buds just before their placement in soil and spray a prescribed amount of chemical on the bud and around the soil. A significant chemical saving was found to be 48% with the sensor-based application at the selected speeds.”

The machines have been tested on a varied range of sugarcane diameters and two popular cultivars were chosen to evaluate the system performances. The research team has filed for a patent in addition to publications in international journals. The other members in the team include Abhilash Chandel, Satry Prakash, Chethan CR, Prateek Shrivastava and Chanchal Gupta.

“Such systems can be majorly employed across the major sugarcane producing countries as complementary and economic tools. Moreover, such units may be multiplied and incorporated industrially to produce sugarcane planting material as per the size of cultivation,” opined Dr. Nare.

Research Contact: Prof. V K Tewari, Professor, Dept. of Agricultural & Food Engineering, E: vktfeb@agfe.iitkgp.ac.in; Dr. Vrajesh Nare, Scientist, ICAR-CPRI, E: brajeshagengg@gmail.com

Media Contact: Shreyoshi Ghosh, E: shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in

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IIT KGP Develops Agro-Robotic Solution for Plant Disease Management

IIT Kharagpur Develops Robotic Solution for Plant Disease Identification and Pesticide Use

India is moving at an accelerated pace towards digitization automation. The farm sector which employs about 58% of India’s workforce and contributes to about 14% of the current GDP, has adopted technological advancement to warrant uniform progress. However, farm mechanization in India still has less than 50% penetration. The Govt of India has been taking several measures and a significant drive towards this end is the multi-body project “Development of autonomous multipurpose agricultural robotic platform” funded by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and run by C-DAC Kolkata as the nodal implementing institute along with IIT Kharagpur, BAU Ranchi and KCT Coimbatore. Under this project, IIT Kharagpur has designed a robotic system capable of identifying the plant diseases (say vegetables, maize etc.) through the camera-captured image analysis and spraying the appropriate pesticide, as the situation demands. 

The robotic system is a tracked mobile manipulator that aims to achieve the conflicting objectives of increased productivity, improved quality. This robotic system consists of (i) a tracked vehicle suitable for negotiating rough terrain field, (ii) a serial manipulator mounted on the tracked vehicle capable of holding the camera and pesticide spraying nozzle, (iii) a pesticide spraying module, and (iv) camera-based vision module. 

Prof. D K Pratihar, from the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering who is leading this innovative project said, “Our device can detect the plant diseases using camera and image analysis thus model the uncertainty associated with the human vision system and consequently remove it. This will help the farmers to detect the disease(s) correctly. Further use of such a device instead of manual operation of spraying pesticide will protect the farmers from related probable health hazards.”

The device has been fabricated by Sun Fab Industries Pvt. Limited, Mumbai (in collaboration with TECHNIDO).

“The serial manipulator will have sufficient dexterous workspace making it capable of spraying the pesticides from the top, bottom and various sides of the plant, which may be difficult to achieve utilizing the widely used drones,” said Prof. Alok Kanti Deb from the Dept of Electrical Engineering.

The developed robotic system is battery-driven one and once it is fully charged, it will be able to perform its duty in the field for about two hours. The robot will be operated remotely using buttons placed on a control panel and thus, a specialist technician may not be required for operating the robot in the field.

“We will soon resume the final assembly of the robotic system and field testing as we are recovering from the present COVID-situation. We have further plans in the future to make this robot autonomous and intelligent,” confirmed Prof. Pratihar.

The Government of India is giving a major boost to innovative rural livelihood technologies. In May 2020, the Finance Ministry had announced an economic stimulus of ₹1.5 trillion to boost agricultural infrastructure and logistics.

Talking about the potential of such technologies Director, Prof. V K Tewari, who himself is an expert in farm machinery design and precision agriculture said, “If we are looking at a comprehensive development towards Atmanirbhar Bharat, the strategic importance of such technology development is profound. Most importantly such technologies need to be taken from the lab to the land.”

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Project Contact: Prof. D K Pratihar, dkpra@mech.iitkgp.ac.in

Media Contact: Shreyoshi Ghosh, E: shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in; M: +91 8145 736 048 

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Towards Farm Digitization

IIT Kharagpur Training Researchers in Application of Digital Technologies in Agriculture for bringing Digital Revolution in the Farm sector

In 2015, the Government of India had launched the Digital India programme to transition India’s public service sector into the digital space. Agriculture is the largest employment vertical with a GDP share of 14% holds a key place in this mission to digitization. Over the years, India has witnessed a substantial increase in yields, crop diversity due to mechanization and knowledge dissemination programmes. However, the steeping consumption due to population explosion and rising income has been a constant challenge despite the progress in the agricultural sector. While the Govt. of India has set up several programmes to achieve the dual solution of automation and digitization, technical institutions can facilitate the transformation. Towards this end, IIT Kharagpur is training the farming community and organizing outreach programmes. 

The Dept. of Agricultural and Food Engineering has launched an online course on “Application of Digital Technologies in Agriculture” under the Centre of Excellence for Digital Farming Solutions for Enhancing Productivity by Robots, Drones and AGVs project sponsored by NAHEP-CAAST, ICAR, New Delhi. The short-term course will focus on engaging smart technologies for enhancing productivity with minimal effort and cost. These would include Sensors, Drones, Robots, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Machine Vision Techniques, Computer-Aided Design and Advanced Digital Technologies application in Agriculture.

“Outreach projects in agricultural digitization are of paramount importance towards development and adoption of knowledge-intensive agriculture education. Globally researchers have been extending their support to precision farming and smart farming through innovations and data analytics. While our Prime Minister had announced a digital marketplace for the farming community, the technical institutions like ours also need to facilitate farming technology requirements of India. The recent calamities and their aftermath has shown why we need to be ready for bad monsoon or climate change or even return to organic farming ways while enhancing agricultural yields by means of technology,” said Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur and Principal Investigator of NAHEP-CAAST-IIT Kharagpur.

The NAHEP centre is integrated by three interdisciplinary research divisions such as Agribots, Agri-Drones and Agri-AGV’s based on four portfolios – 1. Climate-based Digital Knowledge Support Centre; 2. Seed/Seedling Processing and Nursery Automation Centre; 3. Smart Portable Machinery Centre; 4. Food Processing Automation Centre. It envisages the enhancement of quality and relevance of agricultural higher education to the agricultural university students.

“It is crucial to empower the human resources with digital technologies in the field of agricultural science and technology, particularly in less-explored domains. The penetration of such knowledge will drive further R&D and create a culture to understand and expedite the adoption of advanced technologies in agricultural practices,” said Prof. Rajendra Machavaram, joint Principal Investigator of NAHEP-CAAST-IIT Kharagpur.

The current course piloted with the postgraduate and doctoral students, faculty members, and scientists from the Vasantarao Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Maharashtra. However, it garnered significant interest among students and researchers from other institutions and also alumni of IIT Kharagpur. The online lectures for the course have been made available on the Google Meet Link: https://meet.google.com/mwg-cgbn-ddy

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Contacts: 

Project Information: Prof. Rajendra Machavaram rajendra@agfe.iitkgp.ac.in;

Institute Related: Prof. B N Singh, registrar@hijli.iitkgp.ac.in; 

Media Outreach: Shreyoshi Ghosh, shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in;

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Transforming Rural Economies

COVID-19 has given a clarion call for a technology-enabled world, more so in the context of the Indian rural sector which has always stayed several steps behind the urban way of living. The slow progress could be attributed to not just lack of financial resources but also towards weak communication of functional knowledge, for a large population lacking literacy (M: 80.9%, F: 64.6%), and reliance on western technologies failing to cater to the requirements of the rural population of India. Researchers at IIT Kharagpur have come forward to bridge this gap by rolling out farming technologies as well as non-farming technologies for rural employment. 

Talking about this initiative, Director, IIT Kharagpur, Prof. Virendra Tewari said,

“The Government of India offers huge subsidies for mechanization of the rural sector, but the farm machinery sector has not invested significantly in creating a market for indigenous technologies  addressing the burning need of the Indian rural sector.  Experts at IIT Kharagpur are answering this challenge by designing technologies well suited for the livelihood of the rural class of our country.”

The Institute, through its Precision Farming Development Centre, Farm Implements and Machinery and Rural Technology Action Group projects, has developed and deployed farm machinery including ranging from micro-irrigation, combined harvester, crop and vegetable planters, solar energy operated transplanters, groundnut diggers, ultrasonic sprayers. Further non-farming livelihood technologies for rural small-scale and cottage industries have been mechanized. To name a few, Dhenki, Potter Wheel, Jute Rope making, Door Mat making, Amber Charkha, Rice Flaking. The initiative also includes social impact technologies such as Smokeless Chullahs, Rural Drinking Water Facility. 

Prof Kamlesh Tiwari, one of the lead researchers in this program confirmed the training of around 2500 farmers from nearby villages of West Bengal and Odisha in micro-irrigation and protected cultivation structures. Several farmers who adopted these farm machinery and farm equipment reported a decrease in labor cost, reduction in the cost of cultivation, timeliness operations, improvement in pulverization, increase in soil fertility and production. Mr. Karthik Maity, from Hurnal village of Purba Medinipur and Subratha Mahesh from the Gurgram village of Paschim Medinipur, expressed their delight over their enhanced yield due to the technologies they adopted and the increased profits. 

Further, outreach programs were organized by the Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering and the Rural Development Centre to communicate, train rural people and help their transition to mechanized farming and livelihoods. IIT Kharagpur has extensively mobilized the funding available under national mission projects like ‘National Initiative for Design Innovation’ and ‘Unnat Bharat Abhiyan’ towards achieving this goal. 

“We are ensuring the technologies are being implemented either in their farms or being adopted to generate employment through startups, setting up self-help groups. The livelihood technology adoption program witnessed significant acceptance in three North Eastern states including Assam, Manipur, Tripura as well as in several districts of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu,”  Prof. Kamlesh Tiwari said.

Earlier this year, the India Brand Equity Foundation, an initiative of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, had estimated the gross value to be added by the rural sector, including agriculture, forestry and fishing, at ₹20 trillion approximately with a dominant employment share of 58%. Also, in May, the Finance Ministry had announced an economic stimulus of ₹1.5 trillion to boost agricultural infrastructure and logistics and ₹400 billion was allocated for the rural employment guarantee scheme. Referring to this Director, Prof. Virendra Tewari further emphasized on the strategic importance of such technology development.

He remarked, “While India is moving at an accelerated pace towards digitization, there is a crucial need to complement it with automation in the rural livelihood and farming sector and warrant a uniform progress. Such transition in rural livelihood will not only increase productivity and earnings manifold but will also lead to capacity building for rural and cottage industries, improved product quality, increased employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities in rural areas.” 

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Contacts:

Project Information: Prof. Kamlesh N Tiwari, kamlesh@agfe.iitkgp.ac.in;

Institute Related: Prof. B N Singh, registrar@hijli.iitkgp.ac.in; 

Media Outreach: Shreyoshi Ghosh, shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in; More News:: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in/; 

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