Water Saving Farming

Be smarter, Save water, Farm smarter!

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Inspiration

To minimize the cost of setting up greenhouse farming and minimize the usage of water during farming.

What it does

A Greenhouse is a framed structure covered with a transparent material covering land large enough to grow crops under partial or fully controlled environmental conditions to get optimum growth and productivity. Greenhouse Technology is the technique of providing favourable environment conditions to the plants. Our product, water saving farming, is a green house farming technique for farmers worldwide. It aims to solve issues related to wastage of water during farming and the extreme cost of setting up a green house farm.

How we built it

Our product, water saving farming, is a green house farming technique for farmers worldwide. It aims to solve issues related to wastage of water during farming and the extreme cost of setting up a green house farm.

1.Increases the surface area of your land:- Our idea is to not just to do farming but to do it on lands cut deeper in the ground at a particular slope of 22 degree or 30 degree. It is a well known fact that a slope increases the surface area. Now if a farmer supposedly bought 1 acre land and cuts a slope of 30 degrees on it. The farmer now has increased its surface area by 35-40%.This increased area not only increases the production but indeed also bought a hike in the farmer's income.

2.Availability of Fresh soil:- Another major advantage of digging is the availability of fresh soil. Once you dig the ground the soil underneath is available to you for cultivation, a soil which has not been used earlier. A soil full of nourishment and highly optimal for growth.

3.Reduces the cost of setting up the farm:- Now since our framework is below ground level, the average height of the frame is around 5-8 feet. Considering the farms with pipes ranging in heights between 10-12 foot, where we require motors to remove the net. Our model with pipes of height of 5-8 feet makes it much easier for the cultivator to walk in and out of the farm as the nets can easily be removed by himself and saves him the electricity usage done by the motor. Not only this since the framework is dug down, the cost of using full length PTC pipes is reduced, making our farms a much more pocket friendly option. Also at heights of 10-12 feet’s the speed of the wind is comparatively much faster, requiring a much stronger framework but our model with 5-8 feet’s of height makes it durable and highly suitable to bear with the normal wind speed.

4.Reduce water consumption and also harvest it:- Apart from this the constant supply of water is done to crops which planted on a slope making the flow of smoother. As you know plantation is done on the slope, water flows much easily and is equally distributed to the crops. Each crop absorbs the quantity and amount of water it requires, not much, not less. Not only this we also have plans to use the water collected at the end. We design our model with interconnected pipes at the end which collect all the leftover water and dispose it in a container, storing the water for future reuse and harvesting. This initiative not only reduces the water consumption by 30- 40 % but is also of a great advantage during the rainy season. The rainwater which would normally coagulate around the field now flows down the slope and further through pipes and ends up in the container. This water is then used for rainwater harvesting.

  • If you look at African countries facing sever water scarcity and arid conditions, our model will be an ideal solution. We not only just provide you with solutions that consumes less quantity of water but also comes with techniques to reuse and harvest this.

Challenges we ran into

India is the second-highest populated country in the world, with faming being a major occupation here. Nowadays many farmers are shifting from the farming profession due to insufficient financial protection. Other than that, Climatic changes are also a significant challenge for the farmer. More than 95% farmers use the traditional farming technique in India and incur heavy loses due to climatic changes. Also if you consider the scarcity of water worldwide, a lot of water is wasted during farming. An ideal solution to this problem can be greenhouse farming. But the base money required to set this greenhouse farming is very high. So we need to figure out a midway that not only saves water but also reduces the setup cost. Our product will address these issues and concerns by using technology.

Major challenges faced:- ○  traditional farming (as atmosphere and demand is changing, this type of farming wont help anymore) ○ Documentation and Legal Process of land ○  High initial building costs ○  climate change ○  Future shortage of water supply.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Currently, there is no such Green house farming done worldwide. Due to this, initially, the price will be set higher as it is a niche segment but there is a great prospectus in the near future.

Major accomplishment:- ○  Less land consuming ○  Reduces water consumption by 30-40% ○ reduces the cost of setting a green house of farms by 20-30%(As short as well as less number of PTC pipes are used) ○  Protection from weather damage ○ saves electricity used by the motor in traditional green house farms ○  increases production, increases income of the farmer ○  increases the land for cultivation by 35-40% ○  ideal method of farming for arid regions ○  Green house faming(people don’t have to leave farming but adapt to more productive method) ○ Hydroponic farming ○  Technological Advancement(This technology as stated has immense opportunity of growth both for food supply and farmers welfare)

What we learned

We learned that shifting from traditional farming can be step towards accepting technology. Our project has its roots and does traditional farming but with a modern touch. We learned that cutting slopes increases the production highly ,providing more land for cultivation, making us use the land to its fullest. It made us realise that there are ways we can cut down on wastage of water.

What's next for be smarter

We not only plan to make our project cost efficient but also look forward to conserving one of the precious necessities for mankind- WATER. From being an ideal model for green house and hydroponic farming , our model aims to reduce water and contribution to save the water initiative. This is a new innovative form of farming that has never been implemented in India before. And hence, we would face new, unexpected issues. But we hope to tackle them and have made a few plans for the most probable issues. Farmers might not agree to switch from traditional methods. They also might not have the starting up funds to set this farm. In order to do this, we would stay up to date with the new loan strategy and the economy of our nation. If there is failure or accident of machinery, we have planned to tackle this issue by having monthly maintenance, to avoid such accidents. Though we would have regular maintenance and checks, even if something goes wrong and leads to damage to the property of the customer, we would compensate customer for all the damages caused by our accident, we would have insurance policies for the same. Government policies that might affect our farming under the soil technique. Since there is a possibility that the government policies can affect drastically, we need to be prepared for the possible government changes. In order to do this, we would stay up to date with the government projects and ways it can affect us.

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