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C-DAC develops Smart Farm system for farmers, to be launched on Foundation Day
C-DAC Pune on its 37th Foundation Day will launch Smart Farm System, which is indigenously developed and helps farmers to plan irrigation and fertilisation based on environmental and soil conditions to ensure maximum yield
Pune: In a major development by the C-DAC Pune, on the occasion of 37th Foundation Day of C-DAC it has launched SMART FARM System, which is envisages to be future of agriculture. It is an indigenously developed farmer-friendly system that helps farmers to plan irrigation and fertilization based on environmental and soil conditions to ensure maximum yield.
C-DAC is celebrating its 37th Foundation Day on the auspicious occasion of Gudi Padwa, the new year in Maharashtra on April 9, 2024. Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), a Scientific Society under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India is a pioneer in High-Performance Computing (HPC) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) right from its inception, developing and implementing many systems, which are in the list of top 500 Global Supercomputers. The AI Supercomputer ‘AIRAWAT,’ installed at C-DAC, Pune, secured the 75th position globally last year.
“The C-DAC’s foundation day event will witness addresses by eminent personalities focussing on recent trends in Electronics and Information Technology. All centres of C-DAC have organized similar engagements. On this occasion, C-DAC launched SMART FARM System, which is envisaged to be future of agriculture. It is an indigenously developed farmer-friendly system that helps farmers to plan irrigation and fertilization based on environmental and soil conditions to ensure maximum yield,” said Col A K Nath (Retd.) Executive Director, C-DAC Pune.
“This system monitors different parameters like soil moisture, pH, atmospheric temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, rain, etc, takes corrective measures and informs the farmer through a graphical display unit. It allows farmers to be more efficient and productive while using fewer resources. Compared to conventional farming, smart farming can help farmers increase their yields, reduce their costs, and will also help to improve the environment,” he added.
Talking about its technicalities and its availability in the market, Anish Satya from C-DAC Thiruvananthapuram who has extensively worked on this project for last 3 years said, “SMARTFARM system is an indigenously developed farmer-friendly system, which helps the farmers to plan irrigation and fertigation based on environmental and soil conditions, ensuring maximum yield. The controller is 100 per cent make-in-India solution, designed and developed for Indian farming scenarios and for Indian farmers, highly customizable as per the Indian crops and environmental conditions. It is equipped with a wireless interface for collecting data from wireless sensor nodes. The farmers receive SMS alerts for farm situation awareness. 4G/5G enabled SMARTFARM system ensures cloud data analytics. Controlling of pumps and valves remotely through mobile phone is an added advantage. The mobile application connected over high-speed network leverages the farmers to optimally maintain the farm parameters remotely and ensures higher yield per crop,”
“We have developed this system completely on our own in India and it is the first indigenous system for farmers that too in affordable rates. This machine has three variants, and the base variant costs around ₹ 25,000. As per the sensors installed by any farmer and the area of their farm, the price will increase, but normally for a farm of around 1 acres, the complete system will have around ₹ 1 lakh budget. We are in talks with some of the manufacturers and soon this system will be available in the market for farmers across the country,” he added.
C-DAC Pune’s new academic campus to come up at Chikhali
The C-DAC Pune (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, India) will shift its academic block to new campus coming up at Chikhali after the groundbreaking ceremony at the 10-acre land parcel, allocated by the state government, on Tuesday.
“The ceremony will be organised on Gudi Padwa. We will eventually shift academic courses to the new campus, including data centres and related facilities,” said Col AK Nath (retd), executive director, C-DAC Pune, adding that the new campus will be ready in two years and the estimated budget is around ₹75 crore.
C-DAC’s education and training programmes are aimed at creating skilled manpower in the country in the field of electronics and ICT (information and communications technology).
