The Farmers Participatory Action Research Programme (FPARP) has appreciated a team of scientists from sugarcane breeding institute, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Coimbatore, for developing a small and user-friendly device, named, Soil Moisture Indicator (SMI). The device helps farmers with efficient irrigation management. According to the principal scientist and co-inventor of SMI, this small device, helps sugarcane farmers in assessing soil moisture levels in a variety of soil types while scheduling irrigations. It helps farmers conserve about 15 per cent of irrigation water (up to 6 irrigations) without compromising on the yield. Generally, farmers engaged in cultivation of water-intensive crops like sugarcane rarely practise efficient irrigation management practices, based on the moisture status of the soil, needed for conservation of water resources.
The work has won the team the National Water Awards-2019, consisting of a cash prize of ` 2 lakh and a citation, given away by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation on November 13, 2020.
Several Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) have made use of the device for different crops like groundnut, brinjal, bhindi, coconut, banana, paddy, sesame, black gram, green gram, tomato, mustard, areca nut, and banana, besides sugarcane. The governments of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Telangana have included the SMI under various schemes like purchase and its distribution to farmers. Its commercial production has been licensed to twelve firms from Chandigarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh.
Methodology of SMI
SMI is based on soil moisture sensors, attached to a fork-shaped probe with two exposed conductors. The probe acts as a variable resistor whose resistance varies according to the water content in the soil. The resistance is inversely proportional to the soil moisture—more water in the soil means better conductivity and a lower resistance; on the contrary, less water in the soil means poor conductivity and a higher resistance. The sensor produces an output voltage as per the resistance, which determines the level of moisture.