New Delhi: A solar-powered pest control system has been developed by the researchers of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur. The system can be used on smaller agricultural lands or farms owned by marginal farmers.
With the use of the pest control system, it is expected to increase the field capacity, uniformly spray pesticides and reduce the dependency on fossil fuels, according to NDTV.
A team of three faculty members — Prof Hifjur Raheman, Prof Anup Behera Rahul K and Prof PBS Bhadoria — from the Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering at IIT Kharagpur created the device.
The device powered by solar energy has multiple nozzles to spray pesticides at a time. The solar panel is mounted at the top of the machine to allow continuous power supply.
The method is labour intensive and time consuming compared to the current pesticides spraying methods, which are manual and may result in uneven distribution of pesticides.
“In the IIT system, IIT Kharagpur has the sole distinction of having an Agricultural and Food Engineering Department. Hence it is our foremost responsibility to answer this call,” IIT Kharagpur Director, Professor Virendra K Tiwari was quoted as saying by NDTV.
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