System to improve crop production, reduce water wastage being developed

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications is in process of developing a system to uplift living standard of farmers, improve crop production and reduce water wastage. 

The other objective of the project called – Sustainable Irrigation Management Information System using Real Time Irrigation Water Demand & Supply for Rural Areas Development – is to enhance water productivity and soil management, using agro-economic model for an effective re-allocation strategy.

The Principal Investigator’s Organization (PIO) for the project is University of Agriculture, Faisalabad and Partner Organizations are Telenor Pakistan, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute and Punjab Irrigation Department.

Ignite, formerly known as National ICT Fund, a department of the Ministry of IT is providing Rs. 18.7 million for the project.

Official sources on Monday said the basic idea behind the proposed project is to develop a sustainable irrigation management information system, using microwave signals information of telecommunication networks to estimate climatic parameters, and optimizing water productivity.

The measurement of precipitation is based on fact that the raindrops on microwave link path attenuate the signal. Hence, a decrease in received signal level generally indicates an increase of rainfall intensity.

The sources said underground sensors integrated with an IoT network will continuously assess ground moisture and added with precise, real-time measurement of climatic data and ground water content, the proposed system will accurately estimate actual irrigation water demand in field.

The sources said to enhance water productivity and soil management, this intelligent system will use agro-economic model for an effective reallocation strategy. The system will allocate water based on both flat and variable rates for optimum water productivity.

Source: APP