National Water Award for Scientists of ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute

A team of scientists from ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore, Dr K. HARI, Dr D. PUTHIRA PRATHAP, Dr P. MURALI, Dr A. RAMESHSUNDAR and Dr B. SINGARAVELU has been awarded the FIRST Prize in the National Water Awards-2019 for their work on “Soil Moisture Indicator (SMI) and its application in irrigation water management” in the Best Research/ Innovation/ adaptation of New Technology for Water Conservation category by Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, river development & Ganga rejuvenation, Government of India. Hon’ble Vice President, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated the Award Distribution Ceremony of National Water Awards, 2019 on 11-12 November 2020 in the august presence of Union Minister of Jal Shakti, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Shri Rattan Lal Kataria, which was streamed online. 

‘Cost effectiveness of the innovation’, ‘replicability of the technology’ and ‘increase in water-use efficiency’ were the criteria on which the award applications were evaluated.  The award carries a Cash prize of Rs.2 lakhs and a citation. 

The scientists had developed a user-friendly, simple device named as ‘Soil Moisture Indicator’ (SMI), which helps the farmers to assess soil moisture levels while scheduling irrigations, thus ensuring considerable saving of irrigation water. 

In most of the farmers’ fields, particularly in sugarcane fields, efficient irrigation management practices such as irrigation-scheduling, based on soil moisture status are rarely in practice. In an effort to save water and to facilitate irrigation-scheduling, this handy, electronic moisture – indicating device was developed in participatory mode, said Dr. K. Hari, Principal Scientist and principal inventor.

            This soil moisture indicator has been designed to objectively indicate the soil moisture status in the soil and can work on a variety of soil types. It works based on the principle that electrical conductivity of the soil is directly proportional to soil moisture or soil electrical resistance is indirectly proportional to soil moisture content. When conventional irrigation method was followed, a sugarcane yield of 55.8 tonnes/acre/year was obtained, as against 60.4 tonnes/acre/year, obtained by following SMI-driven irrigation scheduling, he added.

            Initially a prototype of SMI was developed and tested under various levels of soil moisture conditions in farmers’ fields of five districts of Tamil Nadu (Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Cuddalore, Erode & Coimbatore) belonging to three agro-climatic zones, and a refined version was launched during 2010, said Dr D Puthira Prathap, Principal Scientist and Co-Inventor. Women farmers were also involved in evaluating the device. Through the participatory action research project, it was found that sugarcane farmers could conserve about 15% of irrigation water by saving about six irrigations following SMI-driven irrigation scheduling, Dr. Prathap added.

Expressing gratitude to those involved in the design & development of the device, the award-winning scientist-team informed that the SMI technology was evolved with the active participation of farmers and sugar factory personnel through the Farmers’ Participatory Action Research Project (FPARP). The project was monitored by the Central Water Commission, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Govt. of India, the team added.

(Watch FPARP Video film hereunder)

The scientist-team informed that considering the versatility of the technology, several ICAR-KVKs (Farm Science Centres) had demonstrated its use in different crops such as groundnut, brinjal, bhendi, coconut, banana, paddy, sesame, black gram, green gram, tomato and mustard besides sugarcane. It had also found a place in the Union Ministry of Agriculture’s publication – New steps, progressive steps: A glimpse of PM’s achievements. State Governments viz., Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Telangana have already included the soil moisture indicator for purchase and distribution to farmers and other stakeholders under various schemes. It is also noteworthy that the Agriculture Skill Council of India and National Skill Development Corporation have included this in the National Occupational Standard of a Sugarcane Cultivator. At present the unit price of the device is around Rs. 1,500/-, the team added.

            Dr Bakshi Ram, Director of ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute highlighted that, with the fast depletion of water resources in agriculture being a serious cause of concern, widespread use of versatile devices such as Soil Moisture Indicators would go a long way in achieving the objective of obtaining ‘More crop and income per drop of water” resulting in sustainable gains to farmers across the country. 

            While congratulating the multi-disciplinary team of scientists, Dr Bakshi Ram stated that using such devices across the country would ensure huge benefits in terms of conserving water and reducing drudgery while saving money and electricity. Twelve firms from the states/UTs of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana have been granted licence for commercial production of SMI. Further information is available at  https://sugarcane.icar.gov.in/index.php/en/home/1157-soil-moisture-indicator and https://caneinfo.icar.gov.in/Gallery/SMI%20web%20bulletin%20for%20CaneInfo.pdf , Dr Bakshi Ram added.

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