IIT Kharagpur researchers develop solar-powered pest control system
The system is expected to increase the field capacity, uniformly spray pesticides and reduce the dependency on fossil fuels.
A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur has developed a solar-powered pest control system to be used on smaller agricultural lands or farms owned by marginal farmers. It is a self-propelled boom sprayer that can run on solar energy. It is expected to increase the field capacity, uniformly spray pesticides and reduce the dependency on fossil fuels.
The new device has been created by a team of three faculty members including Prof Hifjur Raheman, Prof Anup Behera Rahul K and Prof PBS Bhadoria from the Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering at IIT Kharagpur. The device has multiple nozzles for spraying pesticides at a time and is powered by solar energy. The solar panel is mounted at the top of the machine to provide continuous power through the maximum power point tracker controller and it also provides shade to the operator during spraying in the field. The current pesticides spraying methods are manual and may lead to uneven distribution of pesticides on the farms. These methods are labour intensive and time consuming.
Prof Virendra K Tiwari, Director, IIT Kharagpur explained about the new project as he said that the Union government is realigning inventions with a farmer-centric approach. He said, “In the IIT system, IIT Kharagpur has the sole distinction of having an Agricultural and Food Engineering Department. Hence it is our foremost responsibility to answer this call”.
The Institute has informed that the new device can cover a width of 1.5 metres at a time with a speed of 2 km per hour and has an efficiency of 81 percent. Professor Raheman who has been working on this device said that the researchers have filed a patent and it is ready for commercialisation.
IIT Kharagpur had earlier developed technologies for micro-irrigation and food processing.
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