MoIT To Launch Intelligent System To Enhance Water Productivity And Soil Management

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Sep, 2018 ) :IGNITE-National Technology Fund under Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has planned to develop Sustainable irrigation management information system using real time irrigation water demand and supply for rural areas' development.

The intelligent system has been using agro-economic model for an effective reallocation strategy to enhance water productivity and soil management.

Chief Executive Officer of IGNITE-National Technology Fund Yusuf Hussain said, "Pakistan may be heading towards becoming a desert unless we can manage and preserve our water better, With Al and internet of Thing (IoT) and other disruptive technologies we would save up to 50 % of irrigation water which is the Primary water usage in Pakistan." "The project also aims to uplift the living standard of farmers and to improve crop production and reduce water wastage" he added.

The project manager Syed Hamid Shah told APP, the project is in software development phase and procurement was going on and the project site had been selected for installation of sensors at farmers fields.

�The website of the project had been developed he added.

The mobile applications were in contraction and development phase, soon both the website and mobile application would be completed.

He said application of water and its managed use had been an essential factor in raising productivity of agriculture and ensuring predictability in outputs for that sensors had been installed underground to improve crop and water productivity.

He said, this system had been allocated water based on both flat and variable rates for optimum water productivity and the project had also developed a system by using microwave signals information of telecommunication networks to estimate climatic parameters, and optimizing water productivity.

He said, measurement of precipitation is based on the fact that the raindrops on the microwave link path attenuate the signal. Hence, a decrease in received signal level generally indicates an increase of rainfall intensity.

In the project installed underground sensors integrated with an Internet of Things (IoT) network will continuously assess ground moisture.

With precise, real-time measurement of climatic data and ground water content, the proposed system will accurately estimate actual irrigation water demand in the field, he told.

�Telenor Pakistan, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, Netherlands and Punjab Irrigation Department are the partner organizations for the project.

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