Development for You

PRECISION FARMING

2015-12-02T09:16:00.000+05:30

New agricultural technologies are need of time and to address the crisis of agriculture. PF is one of them that incorporate various modern ways to address the issue.

What is Precision Farming (PF)?

Precision farming (PF) or satellite farming or site specific crop management (SSCM) is a farming management concept based on observing, measuring and responding to inter and intra-field variability in crops. Crop variability typically has both a spatial and temporal component which makes statistical/computational treatments quite involved. The holy grail of precision agriculture research will be the ability to define a Decision Support System (DSS) for whole farm management with the goal of optimizing returns on inputs while preserving resources.

Precision farming aims to optimize field-level management with regard to:

· Crop science: by matching farming practices more closely to crop needs (e.g. fertilizer inputs);

· Environmental protection: by reducing environmental risks and footprint of farming (e.g. limiting leaching of nitrogen);

· Economics: by boosting competitiveness through more efficient practices (e.g. improved management of fertilizer usage and other inputs).

Precision farming also provides farmers with a wealth of information to:

· Build up a record of their farm;

· Improve decision-making;

· Foster greater traceability

· Enhance marketing of farm products

· Improve lease arrangements and relationship with landlords

· Enhance the inherent quality of farm products (e.g. protein level in bread-flour wheat)

West Scenario

· Originating in US and European countries where farms are generally big (over 100 hectares), it sees extensive use of Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) for precise mapping of farms and - with appropriate software - informs the farmer about status of his crop and which part of the farm requires inputs like water, fertilizer and pesticide etc.

· PA in western countries is also characterized by increased mechanization with the use of heavy farm machinery (average power 100-200 kW) for all the farm and field operations such as sowing, harvesting, weeding, baling etc. The machinery runs on fossil fuels and uses about 63 percent of the total energy used in farming - a significant amount.

· Similarly drones are being used quite regularly in Japan and US for insecticide application to the crops. Use of drones for agriculture is proverbial "turning swords into ploughs. Most of these robotic machines and drones are small in size and hence are very suitable and excellent match for small farm applications. Thus small farms size of India is a blessing in disguise and ripe for large scale application of precision agriculture.

· PA in US and other countries has shown tremendous increase in productivity, lowering of inputs and hence increased remuneration to the farmers. Besides it has helped improve the quality of land with no-till farming and less water usage. Similar things are possible in India with its use.

Indian scenario

· Wealth and security of the country comes from its land and hence what is needed is sustainable, high-tech and high productivity agriculture which will be remunerative and help provide both food and energy security. Precision agriculture, which can provide precise inputs like water, fertilizer, insecticides at the right time to crops, can help bring in the next green revolution.

· In the existing agricultural scenario, India is characterized by small farms with around 80 percent of total holdings less than 2 hectares (5 acres) and land mostly rain-fed with only 30 percent irrigated.

· Around 55 percent of the Indian population depends on farming, as against less than 4 percent in US and other advanced economies, because of heavy mechanization of agriculture. Because of poor availability of funds, farm inputs, poor support price structure for the produce and almost no farm insurance, farming in India is non-remunerative and 50 percent of farmers are in debt - the main reason for a large number of suicides.

· India, though one of the biggest producers of agricultural products, has very low farm productivity, with the average only 33 percent of the best farms world over. This needs to be increased so that farmers can get more remuneration from the same piece of land with less labour. Precision agriculture (PA) may provide a way to do it.

· For small farms, precision agriculture may include sub-surface drip irrigation for precise water and fertilizer application to the crops and robots for no-till sowing, weed removal, harvesting and other farming operations. Some of these robots are already being used on small farms in US and Europe and with vigorous R&D taking place, it is expected that they may be deployed in large scale in near future.

Constraints and solutions

· The biggest criticism of mechanized agriculture is that farm machinery is very costly and no farmer, including big ones, can afford it. Since precision agriculture is going to be very dependent on mechanization, this criticism is presently justified.

· However the mechanization and PA may give rise in a big way to farm machinery leasing agencies in rural areas. These companies will lease the mechanized equipment, including drip irrigation systems, to the farmers and also provide trained manpower to run these machines.

· Such a thing already exists on limited scale in India where few agencies do the wheat harvesting using combines and spraying of crops. They charge the farmers on per hour basis and with theunavailability of farm labour, farmers find this concept economical and attractive.

· In western Maharashtra, more and more farmers are depending on mechanization offered by such agencies. With increasing demand these leasing enterprises will increase and as PA develops and increases, they will get more structured, so that just like private taxi companies, they will be available on demand.

· It is also envisaged that these leasing companies may form the backbone of Indian agriculture by providing the necessary advice and manpower to the farmers on precision agriculture.

· Critics of mechanization also contend that by timely sowing of crops and applying proper and recommended water and fertilizer to it, a farmer can easily improve the productivity of crops and his income. However application of inputs at proper time requires timely availability of labour, water and fertilizer - all of which are becoming scarcer and scarcer.

· Besides majority of farms are rain-fed and with the change of weather patterns, availability of rain water is very unpredictable. Hence the non-availability of inputs and labour on time is the biggest stumbling block to increase productivity of farms and remuneration. PA can help in this matter.

· The ultimate role of a farmer should be to identify better crops, use that seed to propagate it further and hence in effect become a breeder of sorts. Progressive farmers already do that and with more time available to them because of PA they may be able to help Indian agriculture to produce better and higher yielding varieties.

· Also the mechanization will make the farming glamorous and may attract more people to take up farming in a big way. The most important component in taking PA forward will be in creating a huge resource of engineers, scientists and agriculturists to develop various components of the technology.

· Without excellent manpower and consequently good R&D, PA will not succeed. One of the misfortunes of Indian education system is that all the good students want to get into engineering and medical streams and only the leftover students go into agriculture.

· There is a need for excellent engineers from institutions like IITs, NITs, etc. to design machinery like robots and drones for PA. This can be facilitated by establishing a new branch of engineering called agricultural mechanotrics or robotics where faculty and students from almost all branches of engineering will interact and collaborate to develop smart systems for PA.

· Another way forward is when scientists from ICAR institutes, engineers from academic world, industry and farmers work together in developing PA.

· PA may provide a platform for industrial corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity. After all helping the rural poor improve their livelihood through high tech farming should qualify as a CSR activity. The Indian government can facilitate in this process by giving soft loans and sops to the industry so that they get more engaged in agriculture and PA activities.

· High tech PA therefore can help in bringing next green revolution to India and can produce tremendous rural wealth in a sustainable and environmentally sound way.

· Farmers and farms are the backbone of any country since they can produce food, fuel (agricultural residues) and wealth from the land. They should be helped by all members of society and developing PA is a step in the right direction.

OPEN COURSE WARE WEBSITES

2015-06-22T22:41:00.000+05:30

OPEN COURSE WARE WEBSITES

Open course ware is a new movement among the academic communities where schools from around the world are providing free lectures, lessons and other learning materials at absolutely no cost.

Open course ware is an initiative in which hundreds of Universities and colleges from many countries have agreed to make their course ware (education materials) accessible to everyone, anytime via the internet for free. Open course ware can be used to achieve specific learning goals or recognised formal qualifications.

BEST OPEN COURSE WARE WEBSITES FOR FREE EDUCATION

1. UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

Free Online Courses From the University of Washington

The University of Washington has been a leader in online education for more than a decade, delivering courses and programs over the Internet since 2001. Part of that legacy of leadership includes offering a selection of online courses for free to anyone who wants to expand their world through higher education.

The UW currently provides free online courses through a variety of services, including popular online learning platforms such as the Canvas Network, Coursera and edX. Many of these courses are based on popular classes offered by UW degree and certificate programs, both online and in person.

2. HARVARD UNIVERSITY ONLINE LEARNING

Here you find free online courses and a wide range of related learning content from across Harvard’s school, initiatives and programmes.

So explore Harvard’s extensive, world-class online learning opportunities and follow your intellectual curiosity.

3. MIT OPEN COURSEWARE

At the MIT Open Courseware site, you'll find a syllabus, various readings, lecture notes, assignments and more. You can download course materials at no cost. It's a fantastic service, with courses covering biology, political science, music, economics and much more. The courseware that you'll find on this site goes beyond the basic video content most other open courseware sites offer.

4. OPEN YALE COURSES

Yale University also offers open course work at its website known as “Open Yale Courses”. On this site you can explore history, chemistry, Astronomy, and many other subjects.

In Open Yale you can download course materials. You can work through these courses just like you were sitting in the class room. There are few opportunity in the world where you can obtain a free education and this is one of those.

5. CALTECH.EDU

Caltech offers a website called "streaming theatre" where you'll find a variety of talks by professionals from the Caltech staff and alumni.

6. OPEN MICHIGAON

Open.Michigan is a University of Michigan initiative that enables faculty, students, and others to share their educational resources and research with the global learning community.

Open Michigan is set up as a resource for students and faculty to share their own educational resources as well as the research they conduct at the University.

At Open Michigan, you'll not only find a whole collection of downloadable course materials, but you can also share your own research and materials, or connect with other academics and researchers at the "U-M Open Community".

7. UTAH STATE OPEN COURSE WARE

Another university that offer open courseware is Utah State University. Utah State University offers listing for free courseware under Biology, Human Development, Physics, Psychology, and much more. You will find an amazing variety of downloadable materials and learning opportunities here.

This is also a good place to find other open course ware sites, since the Utah State page lists some of the OCW resources of like Johns Hopkin, Japan OCW alliance and Notre Dame.

8. THE OPEN UNIVERSITY

Open Learn from Open University – The Home for Free Learning

This OPEN LEARN is a UK based site offering the Open University. It is a large library of educational material and well worth the time to explore the site to know about subjects of all categories- Health, Psychology, Education, Art, Language, Nature & Environment, Science, Math and Technology..

9. OPEN EDUCATION CONSORTIUM

A Global Network for Open Education-

Open Education Consortium encompasses resources, tools and practices that employ a frame work of open sharing to improve educational access and effectiveness worldwide.

Open education combines the traditions of knowledge sharing and creation with 21^st century technology to create a vast pool of openly shared educational resources, while harnessing today’s collaborative spirit to develop educational approaches that are more responsive to learners needs.

SO LEARN THE FREE COURSES OF YOUR INTEREST AND SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE HERE IN THIS PAGE FOR OTHERS…

EXPOSURE CHANGE MY DAUGHETR’S LIFE

2015-04-26T19:22:00.000+05:30

EXPOSURE CHANGED MY DAUGHTER’S LIFE

People say in this modern time ‘Information is a powerful weapon’ but I would add that information is such a weapon which can bring smile on anybody’s face, it can change a human mind, thought and even body! It has happened in one girl’s life, named Kiabati Jadia of Digiribandha village.

In the month of September, 2014 with the support from Gram Vikas, Bafla project about 15 farmers came to an exposure visit to our Harsha Trust, Bissamcuttack project villages. The main objective of the exposure was to see the Wadi(Fruit Orchard) and vegetable intervention. From Gram Vikas, Bighneswar Panda, Senior Supervisor was accompanying the team. During the field visit the team visited Wadi (mango & cashew) field, inter cropping in wadi field, vegetable cultivation through trellis and vegetable cultivation through drip irrigation system. During the evening session with the farmer a small interaction session was organized at Harsha Trust Training hall premises and from Harsha Trust, as team leader I too was presiding the session. While they were there, farmers and Gram Vikas staff appreciated good interventions implemented by us.

While some people may skeptically believe that exposure means merry making and only a picnic visit to some of the places but this is not true because exposure can also trigger change in human mind, thinking and inspire one to be a good human being. As it turned out, one farmer Dhanapati Jadia father of Kaibati was one of the landless farmers of the village under Gopinathpur G.P of Thuamul Rampur block of Kalahandi district, who had come as part of exposure team. He is father of two more sons and his old parents also stay with him.

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Kiabati Jadia Before Cleft Operation

Kiabati Jadia After Cleft Operation

During this Gram Vikas Bafla Team field visit and small interaction, Dhanapati came to know that Harsha Trust also facilitates the surgical operation for cleft lip patients by seeing some of the photographs stapled in the photo gallery in office. He felt very curious and interested to know how Harsha Trust is supporting the work. He was so interested because his daughter was suffering from that same congenial deformity. At that time he took my contact number then after one month I called Gram Vikas to know about his well being. Through series of engagements one day was fixed for the surgical operation on his daughter at Jharsuguda TRLK Hospital.

Now ……… months after the operation her daughter feels very confident about herself as beautiful smile is back on her face. Those who used to tease her during the school, during bath and social functions now feel guilty of their actions. Series of visitors including neighbors and distant relatives now come to see her face and appreciate the initiative taken by Harsha Trust.

She emotionally replied that, “Harsha Trust and Gram Vikas staff gifted me a new life and I will never forget their contribution to me and my family” as she saw all people around her appreciating her smile. Now her father and mother, Sunamani Jadia, express their gratitude because they can marry their daughter to anybody without fear, hesitation or shame. As a result of that Dhanapati Jadia now wants the smile back on more faces in his area. He wants to help those who have similar congenial condition in their life causing shame and loss of confidence. Thus, I believe a simple exposure can also change a life of anyone, when one can access right information and guidance.

Harsha Trust not only does Wadi and livelihood promotion, but also does a lot of work which is not ‘visible’ or could not be assessed in terms of physical or financial impact. Some achievements should be measured by humane aspect as well. Nowadays almost all Civil Society Organisations do the work for the down trodden people, for the improvement of their education system, their financial condition and health status. It is highly essential and they rightly do it, but on the other hand I feel, we often forget how some little support to most vulnerable people would have greater impact in their lives. This happened with Kiabati, daughter of Dhanapati and this is happening with lots of other whom we care for. Rarely, there are organizations like Harsha Trust who realize that bringing smile to faces is as important in the well being of the poor by assisting those who are suffering from congenial deformity called cleft lip.

By : Sarat Kumar Sahoo, Team Leader at Bissam Cuttak, Harsha Trust