Smart Automation for Production of Panchagavya Natural Fertilizer

• Published in: Agronomy (Basel) Vol. 12; no. 12; p. 3044
• Main Authors: Sumathi, V, Mohamed, Abdullah J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.12.2022
• Subjects: Agricultural practices; Agricultural production; Agricultural technology; Agriculture; automated fertilizer production; automated irrigation; Automation; Cattle; Crop yield; drip irrigation system; Enriched foods; Farming; Fertilizer industry; Fertilizers; Food; Food consumption; Irrigation; liquid fertilizer; Microcontrollers; Moisture effects; Organic farming; organic fertilizer; Organic fertilizers; panchagavya; Sensors; Side effects; Soil fertility; Soil improvement; Soils; India
• ISSN: 2073-4395; 2073-4395
• DOI: 10.3390/agronomy12123044

Modern agricultural farming techniques employ the usage of chemical supplements to improve crop yield in terms of quantity and quality. This practice has brought down the fertility of the soil and has led to secondary impacts and necessitates a significant financial investment. Awareness of the side effects of artificially enriched food has made people move towards organically grown food, and the consumption has also increased significantly. One of the ancient organic fertilizers used in India is panchagavya. As the name implies, pancha means five and gavya means cow. The five products of the cow are combined as per the compositions and procedure described in the literature, to provide economical and meaningful value to organic farming. The objective of this work is to design, develop, and implement an automated system to manufacture panchagavya with reduced operator assistance. The system implements an ATmega 328 microcontroller to automate the entire process by interfacing sensors such as pH, moisture, temperature, and pressure. The system is also provided with a SIM900A GSM modem to provide information to the user regarding the status of the process. The developed pilot scale design discussed in this work has several advantages in the world of farming technologies in terms of enriching the soil, thereby improving the crop yield. This technology will benefit the farmers as this natural fertilizer can be mass-produced and turn them into entrepreneurs, which benefits society at large.