Electronic crop (e-Crop), an Internet of Things (IoT) device for smart farming developed by the Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (CTCRI), an Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) facility here, has been granted patent by the Indian Patent Office.
The e-Crop simulates crop growth in real-time based on weather, soil moisture, and nutrient status. It calculates nutrient and water requirements and generates an agro-advisory for the crop on a daily time scale, CTCRI said in a statement here on Wednesday. It provides periodical advices via SMS to growers regarding water and nutrient (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) requirements.
Santhosh Mithra, principal scientist, CTCRI, is the inventor of the technology.
“e-Crop-based smart farming (e-CBSF) has been successfully field-demonstrated for cassava, sweet potato, elephant foot yam, and banana. Farmers achieved higher yields with a saving on nutrients and water up to 50% owing to the knowledge-intensive management of spatial and temporal variabilities of soil and plant properties,” according to the CTCRI.
An important aspect of this device is its generic nature which allows it to be adapted to any field crop.
Efforts in that direction in collaboration with State agriculture departments including that of Kerala, ICAR institutes; IIT-Palakkad, Digital University Kerala, and the Rubber Research Institute of India (RRII), Kottayam, are in progress, the CTCRI said.
