Abstract
Scarcity of water resources due to increased demand as a result of exponential increase in population leading to accelerated requirement of food and industrial goods has led to a situation where many countries are facing severe water crisis. About 70% of water is being used for irrigation. As a result of this, in many cases untreated wastewater is also used for irrigation which further poses various threats to human health. Various studies have proposed that applying information technology in the irrigation techniques can help in reducing the water consumption in the farms. The smart farming techniques developed through the use of information technology can help the farmer in managing the water resources, reducing the wastage of water and to even measure the quality of water. Smart farming techniques can aid in solving biggest crisis and can help in attaining sustainable development goals.
Top2. Indian Agricultural Landscape
Farming contributes about 17% to India's GDP. With an estimation of roughly $390 billion, it is a standout amongst the most significant financial aspects in India. Around 60% of India's population relies upon agriculture. Despite the fact that India is the main producer of different harvests, there is potential to improve the yield to meet sustainable development goals.
Irrigation in India depends heavily on monsoons. Rainfall is uncertain, irregular and uneven or unequal. 80% of rainfall in India occurs in four months, from June to October. There is an immediate need for sustained, efficient, reliable irrigation for the rest of the eight months. Water is a finite, crucial resource. In most places around the world, water is being used for industrial consumption and also for agricultural use. It is also an important part of wetlands and other natural ecosystems that are of huge value to us. Irrigation can contribute towards losses of water in many ways. Water can seep out of tanks or transmission canals before getting to the plants. After water is applied to plants in the field, some of it can get into the groundwater system, where it is no longer available to the roots of the crop, or it might run off the field altogether.
Locally, the nature of ground water has been degraded. Metropolitan and modern squanders and synthetic manures, herbicides, and pesticides have percolated the soil, invaded a few aquifers, and reduced the ground-water quality. Other contamination issues incorporate sewer spillage, defective septic-tank activity, and landfill leachates. In some seaside regions, escalated siphoning of crisp ground water has made salt water interrupt into new water aquifers. In this manner treatment of water is vital. The motivation behind waste water treatment is to reduce amount of natural and inorganic substances and pathogens to make it potable or to be used in agricultural fields.
Treatment of water requires decrease of BOD, COD, nitrate level, and so on. Globally, just 20% of wastewater gets appropriate treatment(UNESCO 2012).Treatment limit relies upon economic constraints of the nation, along these lines treatment limit is 70% of produced wastewater in high-income nations, contrasted with just 8% in low-income nations.
Key Terms in this Chapter
COD: Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) is a characteristic proportion of the measure of oxygen that can be consumed by reactions in a solution. It is usually communicated in mass of oxygen expended over volume of solution which in SI units is milligrams per litre (mg/L).
Cloud Computing: Cloud computing is a distributed network that provides on-demand provisioning of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user.
DSS: Decision Support Systems (DSS) are information systems that support organizations in decision making.
GNSS: Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)is a satellite framework that is utilized for global coverage to pinpoint the geographic area of a client's receiver anyplace in the world. It provides autonomous geo-spatial positioning.
HYV: High yielding variety seeds (HYV seeds) are seeds of preferable quality over ordinary quality seeds. The produce from these seeds is more as compared to the typical ones. These seeds are a superior choice of seeds so as to get a solid and surplus harvest.
BOD: Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)is an important water quality parameter which is defined as the measure of broken down oxygen required by natural living beings to break down organic material present in a given water sample at a certain temperature over a particular timespan.
GPS: Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based system that gives geolocation and time data to a GPS receiver anyplace on or close to the Earth where there is an uninterrupted light of sight to at least four GPS satellites.
MNC: Multi-national corporation.