Tech innovation : Making agriculture profitable venture
1. How to make agriculture
a profit venture business
Presented by:
ARMY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, PUNE
2. ‘Department of Agriculture’ has analyzed the constraints
leading to productivity gap in major crops and gave the following
reasons:
Poor soil health.
Lack of efficient irrigation facility and water reach
to tail end areas.
Low degree of farm mechanization and inadequate
extension.
5. 1. Drip Fertilization
Productivity of crops is low because of lack of efficiency in delivering water and
fertilizers to the root ends.
Liquid fertilizers are currently used in hydroponics for faster growth and hence, faster
completion of research and projects.
Phosphates, Ammonia and compounds with Potassium helps in better growth of fruits
and seeds, and are soluble in water!
Using drip irrigation method, to deliver liquid fertilizers, dissolved in water in proper
ratio, will improve effective absorbance by roots, eventually leading to better growth.
8. Advantages
Can be made at home organically
Ease in handling, blending and application
Uniformity in application
Can be mixed with advanced crop protection products
9. 2. Augmenting Photosynthesis’ period
Photosynthesis is limited by light and doesn’t occur at night and on cloudy days,
while respiration occurs the entire time, consuming most of the former’s products
If photosynthesis is made to occur artificially, not only it’ll produce more glucose in
plants, but will also improve plant and fruit growth many-folds, increasing size,
quality and quantity of desired products!
Blue light - Encourage vegetative leaf growth
Red light - Maximized rate of photosynthesis
Blue + Red combined - Allows plants to flower
A combination of both could be created according to the plants’ need and be
provided during plain respiratory periods
11. Benefits
Bigger fruits and seeds
More fruits and seeds
Bigger plants means being carbon negative for artificial emission of CO2
12. 3. Food loss during Transportation
Even if the produce is large, it needs to reach to the public to be economically
useful. And on an average 40% of it is wasted in post-harvesting processes and
improper transporting conditions.
Food rots due to presence of oxygen or combination of both oxygen and water.
Most of the food products gets crushed because of being transported in bulk
without care.
Warmer surroundings speeds up the microbial growth and decomposition of
produce.
13. Preventive steps
Instead of transporting in open trucks, closed containers should be used, with all
oxygen and humidity removed in order to maximize preservation period
Layers of trays can be arranged inside the containers (like the ones in refrigerator)
to minimize squishing of fruits & veggies
Dry-Ice pellets could be used to maintain a standard cool temperature inside the
trucks to stop/minimize the rotting
@ Finally call centers could be set up, connecting farmers to retailers and by being in
constant touch, the delay in transportation could be reduced and the wastage of
produce could be minimized.
14. Areas of Improvement
Loan could be provided by banks for initial high investments
Adequate technology needs to be in reach of the common farmers
The unnecessary levels between the farmers and the consumers can be removed