Holistic Community Transformation Towards Disaster Management

India’s rural economy is primarily agrarian with approximately 70% of rural households dependent on cultivation for their livelihood. Despite this, Indian agriculture is also beset India’s rural economy is primarily agrarian with approximately 70% of rural households dependent on cultivation for their livelihood. Despite this, Indian agriculture is also beset with several problems, making this common source of livelihood a hit-or-miss for many small-scale farmers. In our work with our adopted villages across the country, we have identified many problem areas such as unsystematized irrigation and crop rotation, soil depletion, excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides, poor crop protection, middlemen for sales, and more.

As per the NCRB data, the suicide rate in the deeply stressed farming sector accounted for 7.4 per cent of the total suicides in the country, resulting in deaths of 5,957 farmers and 4,324 agricultural labourers. This is primarily due to crop failure and inability to repay debts. To provide relief to their families, our Chancellor instituted several charitable schemes such as scholarships, school supplies, and so on. Many villages were adopted where agriculture was one of the focus areas of development. Common practices and needs of the communities were considered and the university came up with several structural and non-structural measures for development and deployment. 

Our research includes structural measures such as developing strategies in organic farming, IoT-based crop yield management, drought-resistant crop management and micro-irrigation, and sustainable agriculture practices. Even simple steps such as reducing waste of available water have bolstered crop yield in water-deprived communities. Our IoT-based systems have brought relief to farmers by addressing another essential need i.e. protection of field crop and vegetable farms from the ravage of wild animals such as monkeys. Our non-structural measures include raising awareness of farmers about the dangers of fertilizers and pesticides, best agricultural practices, organic farming, value-added products, market trading, microloans, and other government schemes.

• 21 Projects
• 16 Villages
• Automated Irrigation Systems
• Community Awareness Programs

Karshaka Amrita Dhara IoT based Irrigation Control System

Water is one of our most precious natural resources and is in increasingly short supply around the world. India is already facing severe shortages. This inadvertently has an impact on food production, as irrigation of fields consumes a significant amount of water. To combat the issue of water shortage and to ensure a perennial supply of water round the year, under the guidance of the Chancellor, the University developed a system called Karshaka Amrita Dhara (KAD) that dramatically reduces water use in agricultural irrigation.  In a pilot project on a 4-acre mulberry farm in Periya Puthoor Village, in Tamil Nadu, this system was able to reduce the number of hours of irrigation from an average of 5 hours a day to one hour a day, thus dramatically reducing both water and electricity consumption. 

This solution stands out from the standard timer-based and/or SMS-based irrigation control systems, as KAD delivers only the required amount of water. A schedule is only initiated if the saturation level is below the set threshold. With the deployment of KAD, i.e,. a SMART irrigation control system, the current manual process farmers use to irrigate different parts of their farm can be completely circumvented.  Technical innovations such as predicting irrigation patterns based on sensor data and taking precautionary measures to avoid loss of information due to power outages, etc., are what Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham believes necessary to avert acute shortages of water and food in the future.

Traditional Irrigation Systems on Agricultural Outcome

Located 25 km from Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, Dewgain lies on hilly terrain with lush green forest land. Out of the 120 families in the village, about 90% of them are dependent on agriculture for a living. However, water scarcity during the summer months and soil infertility leads to a decline in agricultural produce, causing farmers to spiral into debt and, sometimes, commit suicide. Although successive governments have announced subsidies and aid packages to mitigate the issue, the issue of debt and suicide persisted. Moved by the distress this resulted in, the Chancellor inspired the team to come up with a more enduring solution to put a complete end to this issue.

The team from Amrita lived with the villagers for a period of six days in their own naturalistic setting to get a better idea of the general challenges they face regarding current farming practices. Individual interviews were conducted across the 3 different communities within Dewgain. Demographic data, occupational activities, cultivation practices, crops cultivated, seasonal cropping patterns, and crop yield, were studied. Field surveys, village mapping, and focus group discussion with farmers further helped the team to better understand ground realities in the village. After several group discussions with project guides and farmers, the team proposed a design for a low-cost automated drip irrigation system, along with sufficient awareness on water conservation techniques. Drip irrigation will increase yield and drastically reduce water wastage, thereby generating sufficient income for farmers and their families.

One of the other key projects undertaken in Dewgain is as follows:

Wireless Soil Sensor Network for Automated Irrigation and Fertilization

In order to implement an alternative method to water conservation and management, the team from Amrita consulted the villagers, and chose an experimental site to test two independent variables: the type of irrigation and the method of determining irrigation frequency. The team also utilized this opportunity to raise awareness among villagers on new technologies in farming. After inputs from the villagers the team came up with a design of an Internet of Things (IoT) framework to improve agriculture yield by effectively scheduling irrigation and fertilization based on a crop’s water requirements, the surrounding environmental conditions, and daily weather forecasts.

IoT Based Crop Protection System

One of the biggest problems farmers face in India is the attack on crops by wild animals in their fields. The damage from these attacks significantly and adversely affects the crop yield. Attack by wild boars is a major issue in the Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh in India. In Seetharampuram village of this district, which houses 300 families of farmers, attack by wild boars leads to sleepless nights. Farmers in this village use electrical fencing (though illegal in India) around the fields to keep away wild animals. But due to many accidents, which have caused the death of farmers as well as animals, this approach is not so appreciated by the farmers. 

As an alternative to electrical fencing, the farmers keep vigil at night to keep the wild animals away. They use flashlights to ward them off. This is a very strenuous task and the lack of sleep adversely affects the farmers’ work during the daytime. The damage caused by the animals to the crops affects the total yield of the harvest immensely and the farmers have to suffer a loss in their income because of this. 

In view of this scenario, to significantly improve the lives of the farmers, the team of faculty and students from Amrita designed a solar-powered, IoT-based intelligent system that can be used to prevent crop damage due to wild animals. The system implements IoT technology along with simple sensors. The proposed system can improve the yield of crops and in turn help farmers to increase their income. This system also indirectly helps the farmers by allowing them to sleep well at night as there is no need for them to keep patrolling their fields.

Improved Agricultural Methods and Practices for Small and Marginal Farmers

Despite the large-scale mechanization of agriculture across India, agricultural operations are still carried out by human hand using simple and conventional tools like sickle, hoe, rake, etc. Farmers engage in manual labor for long hours resulting in serious health implications. However, many farmers have become accustomed to the resulting health problems and have resigned themselves to living with them.

Seeing the plight of the farming community at large whose health is often neglected to a large extent, under the guidance of the Chancellor, the team from Amrita visited and lived with the villagers of Harirampur, Rajasthan.

The team went around the village and made a resource map to get a clear picture of the sustainable resources available in the village. The team also made observations about village life such as daily routines and conducted focus group discussions with farmers on current perceptions of mechanized farming. The team concluded that better work practices and mechanization will reduce the adverse effects of human labor on agricultural lands. Also, mechanization will reduce the time factor making it more efficient, increasing the quality and quantity. Students subsequently designed, developed, and proposed a mechanization plan to increase efficiency and yield to decrease the burden on farmers.

Design of on-farm reservoir for irrigation

In recent years the summer months have become extremely hot in the village of Kerkatta. All water bodies go dry. Neither local sources nor rivers can be used. The villagers are not able to practice agriculture during that time and have to migrate to urban centers to get some income. In some cases due to the increase in debt, the farmers have been pushed to extreme poverty, resulting in cases of hunger, malnutrition and suicide.

To gain a  better understanding of the situation, and to develop technical solutions to address this challenge the team from Amrita adopted a community-based participatory approach to find new avenues for the villagers. The project team members were able to identify a solution that would be efficient and acceptable for the community. It is based on the principles of rainwater harvesting but enhanced and scaled up to cater to the needs of the whole farming community. Several reservoirs will collect the rainwater during the rainy season and will be used for irrigating the fields in the dry season. This would help the farmers obtain a sustainable source of income throughout the year.