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Advanced Solar-Irrigation Scheduling for Sustainable Rural Development: A Case of India

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Abstract

In the past few years, there have been large migrations from the rural to the urban areas of India as the country has developed. This has led to shortage of agricultural manpower in rural India, a region which is essential for the country’s food security. Also, groundwater depletion in rural areas is affecting agriculture. Automating some agricultural tasks in a sustainable, scientific way could address this, leading to decreased water and energy use and increased crop yields. We develop a research platform to implement proof-of-concept of a system for precision agriculture incorporating renewable energy sources and information technology. Data collected by this system will be used to design a low-cost, commercial version of this technology for the rural Indian farmer.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This work is a joint effort between BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore and FluxGen Engineering Technologies pvt. ltd., Bangalore.

  2. 2.

    Patent pending.

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Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank ADA for sponsoring the visit of Dr. Suresh K.R. at the MES-BREG 2014 Symposium held at UC Berkeley in April 2014.

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Correspondence to Hari Dilip Kumar .

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Kumar, H.D., Tejas Kumar, N., Suresh, K.R., Mitavachan, H., Shankar, G. (2015). Advanced Solar-Irrigation Scheduling for Sustainable Rural Development: A Case of India. In: Groh, S., van der Straeten, J., Edlefsen Lasch, B., Gershenson, D., Leal Filho, W., Kammen, D. (eds) Decentralized Solutions for Developing Economies. Springer Proceedings in Energy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15964-5_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15964-5_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15963-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15964-5

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