1. Introduction
The use of chemicals in farming improves the crop yield, but this has led to secondary effects as well, such as drastic reduction in the fertility of the soil and health-related issues in humans. These factors have presently led to adapting the age-old organic farming system. An ideal organic farming system enhances the process of nutrient cycling and reduces the usage of external inputs [
1]. The most widely practiced organic farming system in ancient India uses panchagavya, vermicompost, and farmyard manure for nutrient management and soil enrichment. Panchagavya, derived from ancient Indian times, has always been treasured as a valuable possession of the country. It has been used for generations in enriching and improving the soil, and provides health benefits for both humans and animals. It has proved to be successful within a short duration. Among several benefits of this natural fertilizer, the agricultural era has benefited the most. The five cow products use three dairy products: cow milk, curd, and ghee, which is mixed with cow dung and urine [
2]. The usage of chemicals adopted during the industrial revolution has led to the diminishing use of the natural fertilizer panchagavya. A study carried out in Andhra Pradesh, India [
3], reveals the benefits of panchagavya as a fertilizer and also a seed storage treatment entity. It also characterizes three different organic preparations concerning microbiological aspects and the impacts made on crop growth and yield given in
Figure 1.
The use of panchagavya in a field experiment conducted on brinjal (
Solanum melongena) in 2008–2009 by the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad (Karnataka), India, has exhibited good results in brinjal yield. The nutrient uptake has been reported to be N (92.86 kg ha
−1), P (22.16 kg ha
−1), K (110.62 kg ha
−1), and S (29.48 kg ha
−1) [
4]. Apart from several advantages related to plantation and crop yield, the most specific application is in the use of seeds or seedling treatment and can be used as a catalyst for organic manure for speeding up its decomposition [
5]. Experienced personnel use panchagavya as a medical supplement to treat people for various diseases and deficiencies. Though the different applications listed require a 3% concentration of panchagavya, some plants, such as cashew rootstocks, require a 5% concentration for beneficial growth parameters and graft success [
6]. Effects of the application of panchagavya in the form of seed treatment and foliar spray to southern sunn-hemp mosaic virus-infected sun hemp plants have been reported [
7]. Since panchagavya not only holds itself useful in the field of agriculture but also plays a vital role in the health of humans and animals, researchers can bring out the possible benefits of panchagavya as a medicine [
8,
9,
10].
The conventional method in practice for the preparation of panchagavya involves the mixing of cow dung and ghee thoroughly in a mud pot (or any other vessel except metal containers as panchagavya is acidic). This mixture is stirred every 12 h for 3 days. Once the process is completed, the remaining three ingredients are added, and again, the mixture is stirred thoroughly. At this stage, any one of the catalysts may be added, such as sugarcane juice and jaggery for speeding up the process. This mixture is stirred every 12 h for 15 days, and it is ready for use after the 18th day. The entire process is carried out manually, which requires physical effort and tolerance of uncomfortable smell and timekeeping. The ingredient proportions mentioned in
Table 1 yield approximately 20 L of panchagavya, as reported in the literature.
This paper proposes the implementation of a new method for modern organic farming techniques, bringing sustainable changes in the field of agriculture technology by developing a cost-effective design for the production of panchagavya with minimal human effort. An attempt is made to design, develop, and automate a microcontroller-based system in pilot scale to overcome the disadvantages of the manual method in practice. The proposed work, when implemented in the irrigation field, uses a fertigation technique, that is, mixing of liquid fertilizer with irrigation water [
11] and with more focus on applying in the surface irrigation method [
12]. The first section of the article discusses the methodology involved in the design and development of the natural fertilizer panchagavya’s preparation. The scaled-down values for pilot-scale implementation is also discussed. The next section highlights the working of the developed system, followed by the design implementation of the experimental setup. Finally, the results and conclusion of this research are discussed.
2. Methodology
The pilot design shown in
Figure 2 for the preparation of panchagavya consists of three stages, which yields 1 L of panchagavya.
The block diagram shown above consists of the process tank, storage tank, water tank, and intermediate tank. The process tank is attached to a feeder, blender assembly, level sensor, and GSM module. The blender assembly is mounted vertically on top of the process tank. The assembly consists of a DC motor coupled with an elongated shaft and blades for rotary action. The solenoid valves used in this system have a larger outlet orifice compared with other valves used since unfiltered panchagavya passes through this valve. The end-to-user communication is carried out using the GSM module. The storage tank is used for storing the liquid fertilizer. Since the panchagavya is acidic in nature and cannot be directly irrigated into the field, the liquid fertilizer is mixed with water from the water tank and stored in the intermediate tank. The Atmel ATmega 328 microcontroller is integrated into the system to monitor the physical parameters of the soil, such as moisture and pH.
3. Working of the Desired System
The ingredients used for the preparation of 1 L of panchagavya have been scaled from
Table 1 and are prescribed in
Table 2 and placed in the process tank. The process tank’s inner layer is made of a nonmetallic body, and the input is loaded through a hopper feeder placed above the top lid of the tank and is sealed. The pH and the temperature values are displayed as sensed by the pH sensor and temperature sensor inside the process tank. A horizontally placed motor on top of the process tank acts as the blender to mix the composition evenly at regular intervals. Continuous mixing of the composition at regular intervals aids the culturing process and avoids sedimentation. Once the process ends, the prepared mixture is processed, the microprocessor sends a command to the outlet solenoid valve placed in the process tank to open, and the liquid flows gradually to the filter tank. In the filter tank, using multiple layers of filter, the mixture is filtered and the liquid fertilizer is separated from the residue and passed into storage tank. The storage tank is monitored by using a pH sensor and level sensor given in
Table 3. The level of the liquid fertilizer in the storage tank is measured. At every stage of the process, the level in each of the tanks is monitored by the level sensor placed in the tanks interfaced with the microcontroller. The available panchagavya in the storage tank has to be mixed appropriately with water. The water storage system for irrigation is controlled by the microcontroller by turning ON and OFF the pump using the relay. The suggested ratio of mixing panchagavya with water is 30:70, which is stored in the intermediate tank for irrigation. The sensors interfaced to every stage of the process is controlled by the Atmel ATmega 328 microcontroller.
5. Results and Discussion
The proposed work in pilot scale is implemented, and the setup is shown in
Figure 4. This model is designed to produce 1 L of panchagavya. For the requirement of a nonmetallic tank surface, all the tanks used in this model are chosen to be plastic-based containers. The introduction of preparation and irrigation modules has led to the inclusion of two microcontrollers. Two Atmel ATmega 328 microcontrollers are used, one as master and the other as slave. Each microcontroller carries 14 digital input/output pins and 6 analog inputs, which support the signals from level sensors, pH sensors, moisture sensors, and ultrasonic sensors and support communication through the GSM module given in
Figure 4a.
Since the production is planned for a small scale, a DC motor with high torque and low rpm is used for blender operation. A driver circuit is included to operate the DC motor interfaced to the microcontroller. Solenoid valves used in various levels interconnect different stages of the tank, and the HR1-type solenoid valve of a different size is used in this model. A conductance level sensor is used in both the preparation tank and the storage tank, which prevents overflowing given in
Figure 4b,c. The working of this sensor is similar to the float-type sensor to indicate the brim level. An HC-SR04 model ultrasonic sensor is used in the storage tank to measure the level of the liquid fertilizer. A SIM900A module GSM modem is connected to the preparation to serve the purpose of communicating between the processing end and user end. The start and end of the blender operation and irrigation process at regular intervals are notified to the user by a text message and sent through the SMS service.
The model has been successfully implemented for the automated preparation of panchagavya with a surface drip irrigation system given in
Figure 5a, and the installation of a moisture sensor is given in
Figure 5b. Moisture sensor reading in voltage is shown in
Figure 6. From this study, we understand that the positioning of a moisture sensor and pH sensor on the surface of the soil is to be wisely chosen, depending upon the crop’s requirement, and it is proven from [
13] that it is ideal to measure under 10–15 cm from the soil surface. Depending upon the different crop needs, the type of irrigation with a liquid fertilizer is recommended as surface, subsurface, and root infiltration, as suggested in [
12,
14,
15]. The drip irrigation systems are usually powered by a gravity tank for the flow of water to reach each node of the drip system. If the field to be covered is large, then the ordinary tank setup would not support the extent; hence, an intermediate pump would be required to cover the field. The sensors should be placed widely in the field to ensure that the region is properly covered for optimal utilization.
6. Conclusions
The prototype of the ATmega 328 microcontroller-based automatic preparation of panchagavya natural fertilizer supported with drip irrigation is developed in pilot scale, and the results are reported. It is clear from the results that the panchagavya prepared by the automatic method has more advantage than the conventional method. In the preparation stage, the manual method requires much human effort, very tedious preparation, foul smell, and no information on the physical parameters of the liquid fertilizer; that is, moisture, pH, and so on are all overcome in the present development. The interfacing of pH sensors, moisture sensor, ultrasonic sensor, and GSM module gives immediate update on the process as the user is notified at every stage and, thus, eliminates the need for humans to be tied to the process. The developed prototype is low cost and, if implemented in a large scale, can be upgraded easily with minor modifications. The research concludes that if this method is adopted, the use of the diminishing natural fertilizer panchagavya can be brought to the limelight, which is much beneficial to the agricultural sector, improving more yield economically. Despite the several health benefits being reported in the literature, the farmers at large are benefitted, turning them into entrepreneurs and improving their livelihood.