Machinery

: 06 September 2018; Hits: 6165

A paper device technology that will help farmers health-check soil and water

Mathias Steiner, Manager Industrial Technology & Science, IBM Research - Brazil

2018 08 13 Agropad 64.small 768x512

AgroPad: A set of circles on the back of the card provide colorimetric test results; the color of each circle represents the amount of a particular chemical in the sample.

Small scale farmers can monitor the health of their soil and water using an AgroPad prototype which is a paper device about the size of a business card. The device enables real-time, on-location, chemical analysis of a soil or water sample, using artificial intelligent (AI).

Agriculture consumes more than 70 percent of the world’s annual water usage. With small farms producing nearly 80 percent of food for the developing world, ensuring the quality and safety of our water supply is critical. Environmental analysis for agriculture often relies on expensive and time-consuming laboratory tests performed far away from the farm. As a result, chemical analysis is quickly outdated and limited to small sample numbers.

The technology which has been developed by Mathias Steiner who is the Manager at Industrial Technology and Science, IBM Research in Brazil a way to simplify the testing process and make it affordable for small farmers to monitor the health of their soil and water.

How it works

A drop of water or soil sample is placed on the AgroPad, which is a paper device about the size of a business card.

The microfluidics chip inside the card performs on-the-spot a chemical analysis of the sample, providing results in less than 10 seconds.

The set of circles on the back of the card provide colorimetric test results; the color of each circle represents the amount of a particular chemical in the sample.

Using a smartphone, the farmer would then take a single snapshot of the AgroPad by using a dedicated mobile application and immediately receives a chemical test result.

AgroPad: “AI on the edge”

This “AI on the edge” computing approach uses machine learning and machine vision algorithms to translate the measured color composition and intensity into concentrations of chemicals in the sample, making it more reliable than tests based on human vision alone.

Test data can be simultaneously streamed onto a cloud computing platform and labeled with a digital tag that uniquely identifies the time, location and results of the chemical analysis.

The cloud platform allows management and integration of millions of individual tests performed at various times and locations.

This is an important feature for monitoring, for example, the change in fertilizer concentration in a particular region throughout the year.

We currently have a five-parameter prototype solution for soil and water testing that measures pH, nitrogen dioxide, aluminum, magnesium and chlorine. We’re continually extending the library of chemical indicators available for deployment; each AgroPad could be personalized based on the needs of the individual user.

Since the paper-based tests can be reliably performed by non-experts, public data collection with instant digitization in chemical sensing becomes a real possibility.

Along with low cost, mass production of the paper based device and large scale deployment through mobile and cloud technologies, the exploratory prototype could revolutionize digital agriculture and environmental testing.

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: 30 August 2018; Hits: 9335

Biogas heater reduces chicks brooding energy cost to zero

BiogasbrooderLaban A Flexi Biogas Technology staff opens up the chicks brooding section in the biogas warmed structure during the Nairobi International Agricultural Society of Kenya on October 7, 2016. The brooder uses biogas, therefore, cutting electricity or kerosene costs to farmers. Photo: Laban Robert.

Farmers with biogas digesters can cut electricity and kerosene brooding costs by using the gas in raising the chicks.

A 6feet by 3feet by 4feet structure secured by a thin eyed wiremesh from above the holding area, which is about three and half feet off the ground. This is according to a model from Flexi Biogas Technologies.

The gas from the source is connected to a perforated pan-covered burner at the base of the structure.

Heat from the burner warms the pan, which also transfers the heat to the environment conventionally.

The structures is covered all round with a transparent polythene sheet. The burner should be placed centrally to avoid melting the thick gauge sheet.

Brooders are kept within 32 degrees Celsius and 34 degrees Celsius from the first day the chicks are introduced. The temperature is reduced slowly until the room temperature by the fourth week, when the chicks have enough feathers to help them regulate temperatures without external help.

Chick temperature is about 39 degrees Celsius on the first day but after one week, it raises to about 41 degrees Celsius, which is the normal body heat for a mature chicken.

The structure can host 50 chicks. A thermometer comes in handy in determining the temperature of the brooder. If the temperature goes higher than the required, the polythene sheets are opened to allow for more heat to come into the structure.

Similarly, the gas inlet has a tap that regulates the flame to increase or reduce the heat output.

Flexi Biogas Technology officer Richard Ondiek said the move is one of the company’s projects of helping farmers utilise farm wastes to cut down production costs and boost earnings.

“Such off the power grid energy green solutions ensure than farmers are not discouraged from investing in lucrative ventures of their choice. This, indeed, is a cost free way of ensuring that a farmer is better placed in recycling waste for use in energy consuming activities without end-month bills,” Ondiek said.

The company fixes biogas digesters that can handle dung from one to more than five cows.

Ondiek can be reached on +254724971553

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: 27 August 2018; Hits: 5079

Experts: Mechanising Africa’s agriculture can improve production and transform economies

tractor

Agricultural mechanisation in Africa can raise productivity and make rural employment more attractive, thus ensuring the continent’s future growth and poverty alleviation.

Experts, in a report launched in Malawi last month (10 July), examined seven countries — Ethiopia, Mali, Malawi, Morocco, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia — that are at the forefront of mechanisation and how their successes could be replicated across Africa.

The report was published by the Malabo Montpellier Panel, a group of 17 African and international agricultural experts.

“Africa is the region with the least mechanised agricultural system in the world,” says the report. “African farmers have ten times fewer mechanised tools per farm area than farmers in other developing regions.”

According to the report, the seven countries selected for the case studies had average annual agricultural machinery growth rates ranging from 2.73 to 3.12 whereas that of their average annual agricultural output rates ranged from four to 8.5 between 2005 and 2014.

The success stories include the Moroccan government having a department of agronomy and agricultural machinery that designs and develop machines and tools for use by Moroccan farmers while Rwanda has, among others, village mechanisation service centres operated by the government.

Noble Banadda, a member of the panel and chair of the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at Uganda’s Makerere University, tells SciDev.Net that more than 70 per cent of the young population in Africa live on less than US$2 a day as they struggle with high unemployment.

The report makes seven recommendations including a need to elevate national agricultural mechanisation investment strategies within national agricultural plans, design socially and politically mechanisation pathways that are sustainable and prioritise the entire agricultural value chain mechanisation.

“The Malabo Montpellier Panel seeks to provide actionable recommendations for African policymakers on agricultural mechanisation,” says Banadda. “This report provides evidence needed to shape successful strategies on mechanisation and experience-sharing in the African context.”

The experts examined policies, institutional changes and programmatic interventions these countries have made, and their likely impact on the food value chains.

Mechanisation, according to Banadda, is necessary along the whole value chain, including production, post-harvest handling, processing, transport and marketing stages. “Technologies make these stages more efficient and lucrative, especially for the youth,” he notes.

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