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
Researchers at IIT Kharagpur have developed an advanced weather prediction system to facilitate better decision making in agricultural production and reduction of climatic uncertainties and risks. Sponsored by the Ministry of Earth Sciences the two projects ‘Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa’ ‘and ‘Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agrometeorology & Land based observations’ provide timely and right management decisions to farmers to minimize the climatic risk of agricultural production and improve economic return of farming community. The Institute, in collaboration with India Meteorological Department, is disseminating a weather based agro-advisory to farmers for improving agricultural production in highly variable weather conditions.
“The agro-advisory indicating crop and variety selection, sowing/planting time, land preparation, input management, harvest, etc are prepared based on future weather and land characteristics of specific location,” said Prof. Dilip Kumar Swain, from the Dept. of Agricultural & Food Engineering at IIT Kharagpur.
Yield forecasting of crops such as rice, mustard and potato are done at the beginning of sowing/planting, during cropping season and before crop harvest for different districts of West Bengal for introducing specific actions to avoid the yield loss due to weather abnormalities.
“Farmers get awareness on input management such as fertilizer, irrigation, and pesticide application every week throughout the cropping season. Based on a five-day weather forecast, the agro-advisory is prepared on Tuesday and Friday every week and communicated to farmers’ through their mobile phone,” he added.
The advisory is sent in local language to about 3 lakh farmers of five districts (West Medinipur, Jharagram, Bankura, Birbhum, and Purulia) in West Bengal. The advisory is also communicated to district level agricultural officers, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, NGOs, farmers’ portal, TV programme, etc. Using the advisory, farmers protect their crop from extreme events and reduce the production cost by need based irrigation, fertilizer and pesticide application.
“Besides sending the agro-advisory, we also conduct training and awareness programmes regularly in villages on organic farming, vermicomposting, hydroponics, integrated farming, advanced production technology, etc for sustainable agricultural growth, farmers’ capacity building, rural employment generation, increasing economic profit, etc.,” remarked Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur.
A good response from the farmers was received about the agromet advisory services provided by IIT Kharagpur, he confirmed
Students from IIT Kharagpur have secured 1st Runners-up position at the NEC Hackathon: Environment for developing environment-friendly and revenue-maximizing business applications for the farming community to manage crop residue. Vaishnav Katiyar, Pranav Agarwal, Paras Chaudhary and Shivam Tiwari, final year students from the Dept. of Architecture & Regional Planning have achieved this feat at the PAN India competition organized by NEC Japan and HackerEarth. The event witnessed participation from 1149 teams from all over the country of which 18 teams reached the finale.
The hackathon enabled participants to identify the challenges, a factor of problems, analyze them and develop a solution using technologies such as FIWARE and other open-source platforms. The participants were encouraged to think of a solution on the platform that can solve the current environmental challenges in India. This year’s themes were air pollution and water pollution.
The IIT Kharagpur team which participated under the name ‘BioNet’ proposed a revolutionary platform for the benefit of farmers and to increase the overall production of Biopellets with better supply chain management. They developed an application which will provide a single platform to the farmers and biofuel plant operators to sell agricultural waste (biomass) and to buy biopellets. The user interface was designed in local languages for ease of use. The proposal also took into consideration in-app bidding process for biopellets buyers to ensure maximum revenue generation and profit maximisation for the farmers. The platform could also be used for selling local agricultural products directly to the customers in the near future.
Explaining the concept team member Shivam Tiwari said, “Air pollution in India is caused by fuelwood and biomass burning, burning of crop residue in agriculture fields on a large scale, emission from vehicles and traffic congestion etc. We have built an android application which provides a single platform to the farmers to sell their crop residue directly to bio-pellet plant operators (Govt./ Pvt.) and further the bio-pellets are sold in the open market using in-app bidding process. This will solve the issue of crop residue burning, thus tackling air pollution and building a healthier living environment in India.”
The final round was held online on March 28-29 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The shortlisted participants were invited to submit their prototype on the hackathon website and present their prototypes to NEC through a video conference. The toppers were announced too online video announcements.
NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics company, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. NEC has conducted various hackathons aiming at resolving social challenges in India through technology and in continuation to that they conducted this hackathon focussed on ‘Environment’. The event partner was HackerEarth which has been professionally managing hackathons and programming challenges and coding competitions for developers and companies.
A bioactive product invented by a start-up incubated at IIT Kharagpur’s STEP (Science and Technology Entrepreneurs’ Park) is silently changing the face of aquaculture in Eastern Midnapore. ‘Mr Fish’, produced with the latest technology, is one-of-a-kind of product that not only increases the size of the fish produced in the least possible time but, and more importantly, enhances its taste and nutritional quality. Produced by Zelence Industries Pvt. Ltd. (www.myzelence.com), the start-up from IIT Kharagpur, the product has come as a boon to fish farmers in Bengal and neighbouring Orissa.
Both the states have seen a phenomenal increase in the demand of carp and shrimp in the past few years. In the riverine lowland areas of eastern Midnapore, where the product is being tried, farmers once felt helpless as large tracts of their land remained flooded for a sizeable part of the year. They now either use the water to undertake fish farming themselves for a few months or give their submerged lands on a contract-basis to farmers who carry out aquaculture. The result has been a booming business in fish.
However, unscientific farming practices along with high stocking density have led to a culture of fish farming where the quality of the product is mostly neglected. There are complaints from the consumers about the deteriorating taste of the cultivated fishes. The fishes also suffer from early decomposition. “So far, there has been no product available in the market that deals with these problems, enhances fish quality or stops the deterioration in taste. Most of the products deal with disease control in farming but no product till date ensures fish taste and quality. That is why Mr Fish is such a novelty,” says Prof. Jayanta Bhattacharya of the Department of Mining Engineering and School of Environmental Science and Engineering. Prof. Bhattacharya is one of the directors of Zelence.
Mr Fish is produced from natural bioactive molecules and some isolated and innovated probiotics. The listed components are Kelp extract, medicinal plant extract, Lactobaccillus plantatum, Lactobacillus acidophilus,etc. Of high liquid consistency, Mr Fish improves the feed conversion ratio, enhances particular amino acids, and regulates the control of uniform distribution of fats and proteins in fish cells that results in improved shine, storability and taste of fish.
“When used in the right quantity, within the same time and with the use of the same amount of food as before, the rate of growth and shine of the fish and shrimp are comparatively much better than that produced by fish farms that do not use our product. Mr Fish increases resistance power in fish, and enhances the quality and texture of fish by evenly distributing the fatty acid content and right amount of taste active components such as TMAO, glycins, alanine, monophosphates and so on, plus increasing the feed conversion ratio,” says Dr Bidus Kanti Das, Biotechnologist, who holds a PhD from IIT Kharagpur, and is a Director of Zelence. The prescribed quantity for carp is 60-100 ml per metric ton of feed and 120-200 ml for shrimp. Mr Fish has to be mixed well with the fish feed.
Mr. Biswajit Das, a fish farmer from Bhemua, Sabang, who is in this profession since 2002, and is currently cultivating in a 97 acre jheel/lake observed, “The taste is far better than in previous occasions, and this has been repeatedly reported by traders and consumers. The growth is now at an expected level. I would recommend Mr Fish to other farmers also”.
Pijush Kanti Bhanja, a fish farmer in Moyna, who used Mr Fish for a month and saw dramatic improvements said, “All the varieties of carp, particularly the Roopchand, in my farm have undergone a healthy increase in size. In fact, my neighbours, who have asked me for fish have told me that my fish tastes much better than those available in the market.”
Subhasish Bera, a farmer in Kishorepur who used Mr Fish for three months, reports, “I have needed comparatively less food this time for my fish. Besides, the taste of the fish is much better. There is a lot of oil in the fish as well.”
Prof. Bhattacharya says, “Traders who transport the fish are now more interested in selling the fish developed with Mr Fish because of better price and quantity. The quality improvement has increased the price of fish as well. During dull season, the produce that fetched Rs 50 a kilogram now fetch Rs 80 per kilogram. In a saturated market of fishes, distinctiveness attracts more buyers, steady market and better price. Zelence has made a difference for over the past one-and-a-half years.”
The firm first started testing the product in small ponds from 2015. “The product was matured in June 2018, when we released Mr Fish in the market. Now the product is used in Simlapal in Bankura, Moyna, Sabang, Narayangarh and some areas of Midnapore and the reports are exciting,” says Dr Das. The fish from East Midnapore go to north Bengal, Ranchi and even Bhubaneswar.
At a time when there is talk of rural distress across India, the increased prosperity from aquaculture is reflected in the growing number of schools and other amenities in the Eastern Midnapore region. There is growing interest and enquiry about Mr Fish from farmers of West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring Bangladesh.
Zelence has several other innovations to its credit. All of these have been commercialized successfully in the area of nanotechnology, bioactive molecules, microbial consortium for application in agriculture, animal husbandry and environmental engineering. Zelence is being incubated at STEP since 2017. It is one of the many successful start-ups incubated at IIT Kharagpur. One among these successes is Capillary Technologies, which is a software product company providing cloud-based Omnichannel Customer Engagement, eCommerce platform and related services for retailers and brands.
