COIMBATORE: A team of five scientists from ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore, bagged the first prize in National Water Awards-2019 for developing a user-friendly device - Soil Moisture Indicator - to assess moisture levels in soil.
Ministry of Jal Shakti awarded the first prize to - K Hari; D Puthira Prathap; P Murali; A Ramesh Sundar; and B Singaravelu - under the ‘best research, innovation, and adaptation of new technology for water conservation’ category.
The device helps farmers assess moisture levels in soils and schedule irrigation activities accordingly, which in turn helps water conservation. "In most of the fields, particularly in sugarcane fields, efficient irrigation management practices, such as irrigation-scheduling based on soil moisture status, are rarely implemented. In an effort to save water and to facilitate irrigation-scheduling, this handy, electronic device was developed through collaboration," Principal Scientist and Principal Inventor K Hari said.
Hari said that stating that the device is capable of objectively indicating moisture levels and usable on a variety of soils. "It works based on the principle that electrical conductivity of the soil is directly proportional to soil moisture or soil electrical resistance is indirectly proportional to soil moisture content," he said.
Principal Scientist and Co-Inventor D Puthira Prathap said, "Initially a prototype of SMI was developed and tested under various levels of soil moisture conditions on farmlands in five districts of Tamil Nadu (Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Cuddalore, Erode and Coimbatore). A refined version was launched in 2019."