Stumped Stubble System for Stubble Management ATL Project:
The air we breathe is a vital component of our well-being. However, the quality of air we breathe is deteriorating day by day, largely due to various sources of pollution. One such contributor to air pollution is the burning of stubble after harvesting season, a common practice followed by farmers, especially in the Northern regions of India. This practice has been identified as a major cause of air pollution and poses a severe threat to both human health and the environment.
To address this burning issue, the Eco-Integrators team at ATL Marathon 2019 came up with an innovative solution, Stumped Stubble- ‘Smart System for Stubble Management.’ The team’s idea was to create a self-sustained practice mechanism that would monitor, identify and utilize the various recyclable elements contained in the stubble and incorporate the evolutionary process to convert the stubble waste into a profit-making proposition.
The team developed an integrated system that covered the following aspects: designing a smart monitoring system to check stubble burning at a large scale, recycling the stubble into bricks, paper, biofuel, animal feed supplement, etc., scaling up the technology into a product-service, and making it accessible to the agricultural communities.
To minimize the total cost of transportation logistics for stubble from the fields to recycling centers, the team began by developing an estimated stubble yield forecasting model in the Rabi and Kharif seasons. This model was presented as a way to sustain agricultural transportation under stochastic environments, including variation in weather conditions, precipitation, soil type, and randomness of natural disasters. The yield forecasting model developed uses Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Geographical Information System (GIS), and statistical analysis.
The second part of the study focused on the economic model to calculate the total cost associated with stubble harvest and transportation. The model utilizes GIS analysis to calculate the distances traveled from member Cooperative farms during harvest and the transport to processing facilities/industries in various locations. This sheds light on the critical cost factors associated with the total economic analysis of stubble harvest, transportation, and production.
The third part of the research focuses on minimizing the total costs of the monitoring device and its IoT interfacing to create an alert and preventive technology. A two-step algorithm, based on GIS with a global optimization method, was used to solve this problem.
The team aspires to develop a local/indigenous agricultural technology that doesn’t need any foreign investments/technological back-ups, etc. This project holds the prospect of being an initiative that would magnify its prospects and contribute towards bridging the gap between agricultural communities and small-scale industries.
In conclusion, Stumped Stubble- ‘Smart System for Stubble Management’ is an innovative solution that addresses the burning issue of stubble management effectively. This solution not only helps to reduce air pollution but also creates a profitable and easy venture for farmers. The team’s research will provide a primary steppingstone for farmers, planners, and engineers to develop a data-driven analytical tool, which will help minimize the total logistics cost of stubble management and recycling. It is imperative that we come up with innovative and sustainable solutions to manage stubble and other sources of air pollution to ensure a healthier future for ourselves and our planet.
School: DAV Public School, Amritsar, Punjab
Team Name: ECO-INTEGRATORS
Team Members: Hemaang Gupta and Vasu Mehra
Project Mentor: Dr. Resham Sharma
