Development of a Solar Powered Automated Fertigation System: A Practical Study

Crop yield can be increased by providing irrigation at suitable time intervals in correct proportions. For any crop, to get maximum yield, scheduled fertilizer application is highly inevitable. Fertigation is a method of fertilizer application in which fertilizer is incorporated with the irrigation water and applied through micro irrigation systems, so that the fertilizer solution is distributed evenly throughout the field. Automated fertigation system is a highly advanced system for water and fertilizer administration in irrigated agriculture. Automatic fertigation allows farmers to deliver adequate nutrient quantity and concentration with irrigation water to active plant root area throughout the growing season thereby saving labour, money and time, with the help of an automated mechanism. This book portrays a timer based automated fertigation system which works with the help of logical circuits. The developed system operates using solar panel along with a battery, which makes the system operations possible even without sunshine for a few days.

Er. Anjaly C Sunny is presently pursuing PhD in Soil and Water Engineering in Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Kerala Agricultural University, India. She has completed her M.tech in Soil and Water Engineering with her major dissertation on the topic of automated fertigation. She is a life member of AIASA.