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20196
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Subject: Agricultural Engineering × Author: KAU × End date: 2019 × Start date: 2019 ×
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Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Development of automated drip fertigation system using GSM based controller
    (Kelappaji college of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 2019) Akhila Shiney, P; KAU; Sajeena, S
    Lack of sufficient water to grow enough crops for meeting the food demand of the increasing population is the major threat to Indian agriculture. The surface irrigation techniques cause seepage losses, erosion and water logging problems, deep percolation, salinization and runoff. To get satisfactory growth, application of right quantity of water at right time and at right place is very important and this can be accomplished only through micro irrigation techniques. Through automated drip fertigation, we can easily attain the agriculture intensification. The present study was focused on the development of GSM based automated drip fertigation system. In this study, calibration of capacitance type soil moisture sensors were carried out in laboratory for different soil types viz. laterite soil, black soil and costal alluvium soil. Field study was carried out with an Ujwala (KAU) variety of chilli crop under three treatments such as 100 percent irrigation and 100 percent fertigation with automation (T1), 100 percent irrigation and 100 percent fertigation without automation (T2) and 100 percent irrigation and 70 percent fertigation with automation (T3). The automated drip fertigation system consists of four capacitor type sensors, electronic fertilizer injection pump and fertilizer mixing device. Total yield and crop growth parameters showed better performance under 100 percent irrigation and 100 percent fertigation with automation (T1). Combination of 100 percent irrigation and 70 percent fertigation with automation (T3) also gave the good result which was on par with T1. Therefore, it could be concluded that with 30 percent less fertilizer, better performance of crop was obtained with automated drip fertigation system. It could also be shown that the right quantity of water at right time at right place is giving better performance of crop. The developed automated drip fertigation system is cost effective, portable, can perform better in field.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Development and evaluation of an automated pulse irrigation system
    (Department of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 2019) Prasang H Rank; KAU; Vishnu, B
    Irrigation sector consumes more than 80% of the fresh water resources in India. The irrigation efficiencies of the major irrigation systems in India are around 40%, increasing of which could save large amounts of water. The irrigation efficiencies could be increased through the adoption of cost-effective and efficient irrigation technologies, which will reduce water demands, increase agricultural production, minimize soil and water pollution and reduce the cost of agricultural production. Drip/Trickle irrigation is a highly efficient irrigation method which could save tremendous amounts of water when adopted in the place of the wild flooding irrigation. Pulse drip irrigation technology enables lower application rates - that will permit sufficient aeration in the root zone and alleviate plant stress due to inadequate root respiration– from an emitter with a higher application rate by intermittent water applications. This study attempted to develop and evaluate a sensor based automated pulse drip irrigation system which is affordable to the lowincome farmers of the nation. The soil properties of the experimental field were used to estimate the parameters of several soil water characteristics curve (SWCC) models. Among the models; van Genuchten (1980) model of SWCC, was found to be the best in representing the soil moisture retention characteristics of the soil used in the study. An open-source electronics platform, the Arduino was used for the development of the automation system using moisture content sensors and solenoid irrigation valves controlled through relays, by writing program coding in the Arduino programming language. The sensors were calibrated to read the moisture content, which was compared to the management allowed deficit (MAD) and field capacity (FC) soil moisture content values to control the start and stop of irrigation water application. Pulse irrigation design methodology was used to derive the ON and OFF time periods for the pulse cycle. The system was programmed to start the water application as per the designed pulse cycle at a moisture content defined by the MAD moisture content and to stop the water application at the field capacity (FC) moisture content sensed by the moisture sensor. The wetting front movements and the soil moisture contents in the root zone were measured at different time 182 intervals of 1 hour, 2 hours and 3 hours after the start of water application using both continuous irrigation and pulse drip irrigation under 2 LPH, 4 LPH and 8 LPH online drip emitters. The soil aeration was also determined for these treatments and was found to be better during the pulse irrigation as compared to the continuous drip irrigation. The pulse irrigation application was also found to be decreasing the deep percolation loss of water. The developed automated pulse drip irrigation system is found to provide the required aeration in the root zone with reduction in deep percolation loss of water.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Runoff estimation of KCAET campus by curve number methods adopting remote sensing and GIS techniques
    (Department of Soil and Water Conservation Engineering , college of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 2019) Anjana, S R; KAU; Jinu, A
    This study mainly focused to estimate the runoff of KCAET Campus using the curve number method. The study was carried out in GIS enviromuent using remote sensing data. Also the curve number method was validated for selected storm events in the study area. The analysis was done for tlie year 2004 to 2007, 2018 and 2019 upto June. The land use map was digitized from Google eartli of year 2006 and 2018. ArcGIS 10.2 was used for the analysis. About 28.5% of the total area belongs to high runoff potential class, 33.7% have medium mnoff potential and 37.7% of the area has low runoff potential. The runoff percentage from the annual rainfall varied from 16% to 23% for tlie study period. The runoff percentage in 2007 and 2018 were almost similar but the rainfall depths of both years were 3971.8 mm and 2919.8 mm respectively. The rainfall amount in the study area is showing a decreasing trend and runoff is showing increasing trend. Seasonal analysis showed that maximum rainfall deptli was observed in south west monsoon and thereby runoff yield. The runoff percentage was lower in the pre monsoon season as the major part of the rainfall will infiltrates into the soil. Also the runoff depth was highly influenced by antecedent moisture condition and potential maximum retention capacity. The curve number values for noimal conditions were 57.77 and 58.95 for the year 2006 and 2018 respectively. The cuiwe number value tends to increase as antecedent moisture condition increases. The simulated runoff was compared with observed runoff for selected storm events in the study area. The correlation coefficient was found to be 0.928. The integration of remote sensing and GIS along with NRCS curve number method was found to be a powerful tool in estimating runoff.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Estimation of soil moisture indices using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy
    (Kelappaji college of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 2019) Sarathjith, M C; KAU; Anu Varughese
    Rapid and reliable estimation of soil moisture constants namely, field capacity (FC) and wilting point (WP) is significant for scientific irrigation scheduling. The conventional methods for their estimation are cumbersome, time consuming and not suitable for their estimation at different space and time domains. An alternative would be the use of diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) for which the development of calibration functions that link the soil attributes with spectral signature is a major pre-requisite. In this study, the utility of spectral index, feature projection of full-spectrum and variable selection approaches namely, normalized difference reflectance index (NDRI), partial least squares regression (PLSR) and ordered predictor, selection (OPS), respectively to build accurate and less complex calibration functions was evaluated. The performance of calibration functions were judged in terms residual prediction deviation (RPD) criteria. The NDRI based calibration functions developed in this study do not comply witli the minimum accuracy level (RPD<1.4) expected from DRS analysis. In contrast, both full-spectrum based PLSR and OPS approaches yielded calibration functions which were capable for accurate (RPD>2.0) and moderate (1.42.0) estimation of FC and WP, respectively. Specifically, the full-spectrum based calibration function developed using second derivative of reflectance was found to be the best for both FC (RPD=2.01) and WP (RPD=1.74). The OPS approach in conjunction with variable indicators namely, combination of regression & correlation coefficient (/?- r) and combination of adjacency values of mutual information & signal-to-noise vector (AMl-StN) yielded best calibration functions in case of FC and WP, respectively. The calibration functions so developed consisted of only 19.09% (FC) and 34.39% (WP) of total number of spectral vaiiables as that in full-spectrum. Thus, the result of the study advocate the use of OPS approach to develop simple and parsimonious calibration functions to estimate FC and WP from spectral signature of soil.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Evaluation and refinement of low cost automation system for naturally ventilated greenhouse
    (Department of Soil and Water Conservation Engineering, Tavanur, 2019) Jinu, A; KAU; Abdul Hakkim, V M
    Greenhouses are structures used for offseason cultivation of crops and also for obtaining maximum production from unit area. In greenhouses, crop growing environment as well as growing medium can be modified by adopting suitable technologies for microclimate control and water and fertilizer application. Manual controls of microclimate and water and fertilizer application are time and labour consuming and hence automation is required for the better greenhouse management. The study entitled “Evaluation and refinement of low cost automation system for naturally ventilated greenhouses” was conducted during the period July 2015 to February 2017 to modify the existing low cost automation system at ARS Anakkayam and also for its performance evaluation. Existing automation system has limitations such as it cannot manage temperature and relative humidity separately and also it cannot manage irrigation and fertigation. These problems were rectified in refined automation system. The refinement of the system was done by changing the microcontroller used in the automation system and also using a timer for the timely management of irrigation and fertigation. The refined system was capable of managing temperature and relative humidity separately and performing irrigation and fertigation operations inside the greenhouse. The refined automation system was tested without crop and with crop during three crop seasons with salad cucumber crop (variety Saniya) inside the greenhouse. The experiment was conducted inside a naturally ventilated greenhouse situated at the ARS, Anakkayam, under Kerala Agricultural University. For comparison, salad cucumber was cultivated inside another greenhouse which is manually controlled. Microclimate as well as crop data were collected from outside the greenhouse and both these greenhouses and compared. The temperature inside the AGH was less compared to NAGH and the relative humidity inside the automated greenhouse never exceeded above 70%. The yield and all other crop parameters were better in AGH compared to NAGH.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Studies on pulsed electric field assisted extraction of anthocyanin from jamun
    (Department of Processing and Food Engineering, Tavanur, 2019) Akhila, J Chand; KAU; Prince, M V
    Colour is considered as one of the major quality parameter of food. Anthocyanins are water soluble pigments after chlorophylls and impart red to blue colours to various fruits, vegetables and storage organs. Jamun is one of the under processed minor fruit found commonly in different parts of Indian continent. It is a rich source of anthocyanin. Conventional methods of extraction of anthocyanin is less productive and the extracted product is inferior in quality. In this study pulsed electric field assisted extraction was carried out with an objective of increasing the yield and quality parameter. A pulsed electric field system was developed to carry out pretreatment prior to extraction. The developed system consists of an outer protective chamber, inlet unit, pulse generating system, treatment chamber, display unit and cooling system. Pulse generating system consists of a Line Output Transformer, micro controller and filter unit. The treatment chamber consists of electrodes and isolated feedback circuit. In order to evaluate the developed system towards extraction of anthocyanin from Jamun, the process variables such as electric field strengths of 5, 10, 15kV/cm, pulse frequencies of 60, 80 and 100 pulses/s and treatment time of 2, 3 and 4 minutes were selected and the results were compared with conventional extraction. The results were then analysed statistically for optimization of the process parameters. The optimized conditions of electric field strength, pulse frequency and treatment time were found to be 9.47 kV/cm, 60 pulses/s and 2.24 minutes. The quality parameters of PEF assisted extracted anthocyanin such as anthocyanin yield, antioxidant activity, colour values and refractive index were 11.9mg/100 of sample, 97.2%, L value of 2.1, a* value of 2.36, b* value of -2.23 and 1.38 respectively whereas, the same for conventional extraction process were 10mg/100g of sample, 82.3%, L value of 3.1, a* value of 1.23, b* value of -1.35 and 1.37. It was concluded from the study that PEF assisted extraction resulted in higher anthocyanin yield and increased quality characteristics compared to conventional extraction process.