Department of Agronomy of Birsa Agricultural University (BAU) under the project, development of Autonomous Multipurpose Agricultural Robotic Platform, along with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Kolkata has developed a Multipurpose Agricultural Robotic Platform machine.
The technology of this machine was demonstrated by a team of C-DAC in the field of the Agronomy Department of BAU recently.
On the occasion, C-DAC, Joint Director, Dr Hena Rai and Technical Associates, Soumik Layak, Ravi Shankar and Rabindra Nath Kanjilal shared information and presented live demonstration in front of BAU Vice Chancellor, Onkar Nath Singh, Director Research, A Wadood and Scientists regarding this multipurpose agricultural robotic platform based on sensor and computer in the Department Research Field.
Rai said that this machine developed by C-DAC is capable of identifying the various requirements of the crops engaged in the fields and fulfilling the requirements. “With its help, weeds existing in the fields, nutrient deficiencies and diseases in different crop areas of the fields are identified.
According to the need of the crop in the fields, weed killer, insecticidal chemical and liquid fertilizer can be sprayed in the fields by the machine itself. Direct sowing of paddy and seed germination percentage can also be estimated with this machine,” he added.
Speaking on the occasion BAU VC, Singh described this innovative technology as suitable and useful for good cropped fields in a modern farming system environment. He talked about involving PhD students researching in the university in the inspection and analysis of this technique.
Director Research, Dr Abdul Wadood described it as a special gift of modern agriculture, and expressed the need for improvement on the basis of the condition of the fields to make it more useful. He stressed on making this technique favorable for the use of crops other than paddy.
Director Administration, Gyan Singh Gorayburu described this innovative technology as useful for the farmers in the cultivation of paddy crops and expressed the need to make it more farmer friendly.
Dean Agriculture and Chief Project Investigator, Dr SK Pal said that a research program is being run from the year 2019 on the project called Development of Autonomous Multipurpose Agricultural Robotic Platform, funded by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India.
“This research project is being implemented in the Country under the joint aegis of BAU Ranchi, KCT Coimbatore, IIT Kharagpur and C-DAC Calcutta. Under the project, a crop database of two years was made available to C-DAC, Calcutta by BAU. Based on this database, C-DAC has developed Multipurpose Agricultural Robotic Platform technology,” he added.
