PANJIM: The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), in collaboration with the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Goa, has developed a sensor-based irrigation system for farmers at Sal River and Nauta Lake.
According to a press release, the system uses bank filtration technology and can be controlled through a mobile application or the web.
According to the institute, the system has prevented wastage of water in the area and made it easy for the farmers to monitor the irrigation remotely.
The sensors can start and stop water motors depending on the moisture value of the soil. This process prevents water erosion and maintains the soil quality throughout the field.
Using riverbank filtration (RBF) technology, the system can provide clean water for irrigation. RBF operates by extracting water from wells located near rivers or lakes. As the river water infiltrates into and passes through the riverbed sediments, contaminants like bacteria and toxic metals are removed by overlapping biological, physical and chemical processes.
The government has installed affordable RBF wells to treat polluted water in the two water bodies.
The project presents a model of sustainability that can educate communities with small landholdings, which are unique to Goa. The RBF technology offers an inexpensive means to remove large amounts of contaminants, including suspended particles and attenuation of microbes and essentially provides improved water quality to the farmer’s community to fulfill their irrigation requirements.
The government organised a dissemination workshop where relevant stakeholders, researchers, policymakers, and farmers learnt about the technology and could explore new collaborations for future developments.
