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Showing posts from April, 2022

Smart Irrigation

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The start of agriculture marks the civilisation of the human race. Even thousands of years later, most of its techniques haven't changed at all. Agriculture irrigation accounts for about 70% of the consumption of freshwater . In a world that is drastically losing its water resources, new methods for sustainable and efficient irrigation practices are long overdue. The traditional irrigation system relies on preset scheduled timers and controllers which is highly inefficient as the majority of water is wasted due to runoff. Rather, a "smart” system that can monitor the local environmental conditions and soil requirements would not only increase the yield of the crop utilising fewer resources, it would also eliminate the guesswork involved in several agricultural practices. This, among other things, is what the Internet of Things (transferring data over a network without requiring human-to-human interaction) based Smart Irrigation would help farmers do.  The IoT-Based Irrigation

Plant Disease Forecasting and Weather Correlation

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Since the outbreak of Covid-19 at the start of 2020, the world has not been the same. The need for a warning signal before a global pandemic cannot be stressed more highly. The same is the case in the plant world. Crop diseases have the potential to cause devastating epidemics that threaten the world's food supply and can cause huge economic losses. The Irish Potato Famine , also known as the Great Hunger, has been one of the greatest catastrophes in human history. Caused by a fungus called Phytophthora infestans which leads to late blight in potatoes resulting in the death of over a million people.  Plant Disease Forecasting Just as the weather forecast provides plausible prognosis about weather conditions for upcoming days, plant disease forecasting is used to predict the occurrence or change in the severity of plant diseases. These are used by growers to make timely decisions about disease treatments to avoid losses. A crop disease forecasting system can not only be leverage

Benefits of IoT Devices in Climate-Smart Agriculture

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Climate change and agriculture are like two end balls of Newton's cradle. One remains in motion because of the other. 38 percent of the world’s land is used for agriculture which is responsible for 23 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions . Likewise, climate change is reducing crop yields and their nutritional quality. Many weeds, pests, and fungi thrive under warmer temperatures and wetter climates . Moreover, with shifting agroecosystem boundaries and frequent extreme weather events it is becoming more challenging for the farmers who are still dependent on traditional farming methods.    In India, the southwest monsoon is critical to the Kharif crops, which account for more than 50% of the food-grain production and 65% of the oilseeds production in the country. However, the rainfall variability has led to large-scale droughts and floods, resulting in a major impact on food grain production. The winter or ‘rabi’ crops depend on rainfall occurring at the end of the monsoon s