PARAKH — Making Animal Feed Quality Assessment Accessible
Inspiration
Dairy farming supports the livelihoods of millions of Indian families, yet assessing animal feed quality can be difficult for farmers who lack access to affordable testing facilities. Visual inspection alone cannot reliably identify every nutritional issue or possible adulteration. This inspired me to develop PARAKH, a low-cost, sensor-based approach to preliminary animal feed quality assessment that aims to make useful information more accessible to rural dairy farmers.
What It Does
PARAKH combines spectral sensing, embedded electronics, and a mobile application to collect and display readings from animal feed samples. Its goal is to explore how affordable technology can support preliminary feed assessment and help farmers make better-informed decisions about livestock nutrition.
How I Built It
I developed a working prototype using an ESP8266 NodeMCU, an AS7343 spectral sensor, an OLED display, and Bluetooth communication. I also built a Flutter mobile application to receive and display sensor readings. Integrating the hardware and software helped me understand embedded systems, sensor communication, mobile development, and the practical challenges of building an affordable technology solution.
Challenges and Learning
One of the main challenges was integrating the spectral sensor with the microcontroller and ensuring reliable communication between the hardware and mobile application. Another challenge is interpreting spectral readings meaningfully: sensor data alone does not prove the exact nutritional composition of feed or confirm the presence of specific contaminants. Establishing those capabilities requires calibration, labelled samples, and laboratory validation.
Through PARAKH, I learned that building a useful technology solution involves more than making a prototype work. It also requires testing assumptions, understanding real-world limitations, and validating results.
What's Next
My next goal is to improve sensor calibration, collect more diverse feed-sample data, compare readings with laboratory reference results, and explore validated AI/ML analysis. I also aim to improve usability through clear reports and multilingual support.
PARAKH is a step toward making preliminary animal feed quality assessment more accessible, practical, and affordable for dairy-farming communities.
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