Former NASA Scientist Develops Super Affordable Sensor to Boost Farm Productivity

Former scientist of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Parag Narvekar has developed an affordable sensor with an aim to boost crop production in India. This sensor will help farmers understand the fertilizer and irrigation requirements depending on the weather condition. There is a dire need for the technological advancements in India to deal with crop production in accordance with the global climate change and Narvekar’s sensor can help us deal with it.  

This sensor which was earlier priced at Rs 1.5 lakhs, will now be available at Rs 10 thousands. 

After working at NASA for almost 4 years, Narvekar realized that he should do something for his country. As agriculture is the backbone of India, he started experimenting to develop an affordable technology that would help farmers increase their productivity.  

Narvekar along with Vikas shinde, the chief managing director of farmer producer company Sahyadri Farms, experimented with the technology and developed the sensor in the farm themselves. 

How this sensor can help the farmers? 

• The sensor can help recognize the suitable timings for irrigation according to the weather, decisions that farmers could take for better crop quality, fertilizers that can be used, medicines for crops and agricultural practices that can be followed.

• These sensors could also be used in weather forecasting through satellite data sets. The sensors can be linked with an agro advisory to add up the updates on weather developments. If the farmers put the sensors at their farms they could also assess the weather of the nearby areas.

• It can also be used for rain prediction and its percentage in advance and can help farmers prepare accordingly.

• It will give the confidence before taking decisions to proceed with our work and wastage can be avoided due to the rain. It helps to make sure that the right thing goes at the right time.