Farmers in Kerala can now receive real-time agro-advisory services via text messages thanks to the new Electronic-Crop (e-Crop) system. This service provides daily updates on the specific needs of crops, including Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K), and water.
The IoT device, developed by Dr. Santhosh Mithra, principal scientist at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)– Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (CTCRI), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, aims to boost crop yields and minimize fertilizer overuse.
Electronic-Crop saves the nutrients and water by 25-50%, resulting into reducing of carbon footprint and global warming. Adaptability to other field crops can be achieved by integrating suitable crop models. A single device covers an area about 20 Km2, can help large number of farmers in a region.
e-Crop based smart farming has been successfully field-demonstrated for cassava, sweet potato, elephant foot yam and banana, reducing the yield gap from 50% to 5% in traditional farming. The benefit cost ratio of cassava, sweet potato, elephant foot yam and banana are recorded as 4.38:1, 1.1:1, 2.55:1 and 4.01:1 respectively. The BCR suggests that cassava and banana are the most profitable among the four crops.
e-Crop provides farmers with a powerful tool that aims to help the farmer to reap higher profits due to more knowledge-intensive management of spatial and temporal variabilities of soil and plant properties.
Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Kerala, ICAR institutes, IIT Palakkad, Digital University Kerala, and the Rubber Research Institute of India (RRII) Kottayam, are refining and deploying e-Crop technology. This partnership underscores a collective commitment to harnessing innovation for the betterment of agricultural practices and sustainability.
