Commonsense project will be boon for farmers

The Deccan Herald, eine indische Zeitung hat einen Bericht geschrieben über unser Sensorenprojekt:

Commonsense project will be boon for farmers

By Jayalakshmi K, DH News Service, Bangalore:

Microprocessor chips planted in the soil are coming to the aid of the marginal farmer in the state. That is what the Commonsense project, a collaboration between IISc and EPFL Lausanne (Swiss) hopes to do.

The Community Oriented Management and Monitoring of Natural Resources through Sensor Network project, initiated three years ago, is beginning to collect useful data that could provide information on how to use the minimally available water optimally.
A tool in ‘deficit farming’, the sensor network will be most useful to the marginal farmer (2-4 hectares) in semi-arid areas. The sensor network acquires environment parameters that aid in prediction which help reduce risk, said Prabhakara, Chief Scientist with CEDT, IISc. “It has been some time now, but we have started to collect data now. The sensors make it possible to have reliable data gathering in harsh environment.”
This is the first time sensors are being deployed to monitor parameters like soil moisture, temperature, pressure, humidity, rainfall data, wind velocity, etc. The imported sensors cost around $50, while the indigenously made ones are Rs 600 each. Both have been validated.

At C K Pura

The pilot project is ongoing at C K Pura in Tumkur where groundnut is the commonly grown crop.
A local NGO ‘Chenna Keshava Trust’ has been involved in the project, mostly in creating awareness about the project. Also coordinating scientists are from the crop physiology department, UAS, Bangalore.
It has made it possible to have real time continuous data that is crucial for the farmer, said Dr Sheshashayee, UA S.
How much water a crop needs and when to schedule it is very important, he said, and it is this scheduling of irrigation that the sensors help with. He calls it the ‘planned agriculture’ whose actual long-term results may take another ten years to be seen.
“But to begin with, it aids the farmers immensely by telling him when it is crucial to give water, and in the absence of rainfall and soil moisture, it tells him not to waste scarce money on fertilisers, etc. Even when borrowing water at great costs, he is told when exactly the water is most needed by his crop. As also that there is sufficient moisture in the soil and there is no need to go for further irrigation,” he explained.

Water use crucial

With almost 70 per cent of all available freshwater being used for agriculture, and with an estimated one third of global food production being based on irrigation, the need for optimal water use in farming is crucial.
This also assumes importance in the light of climate change warnings.
A study by FAO notes that up to 40 percent of irrigation water in India is wasted. Now, if output can be increased by 25 percent, it would mean that 15 percent of this wastage could be avoided. That is precisely what the ‘Commonsense’ project aims to do.

Deccan Herald, July 15, 2007: Commonsense project will be boon for farmers