This farmer's 15-year old son helped him to save water and electricity with coding

Yog Panajrale, a 15-year-old son of a farmer from Maharashtra, made an innovation to help his father in saving electricity, water, and time all with just a mobile phone. This young lad used to see his father, a farmer, waking up at odd hours in order to farm because their region always has an erratic supply of electricity and is often available mostly at night. All of this became his father’s routine, thus putting sleep to wait. Yog Panajarale was disgruntled to see his father, Dr. Suryakant, waking up at night 3 times a week, riding 6 km to their farm, only for switching on the motor which enabled irrigation.

The birth of the Farm Helper app

Displeased with the routine, Yog got a chance to ease up his father’s situation in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown when he started taking coding classes online. He thought that he had free time and, hence, decided to develop additional skills, and after finishing the course he felt that he could use what he had learned to help his father.

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Yog managed to develop an app, Farm Helper and a device that operated the water motor remotely. It meant that the motor could now be turned on without him stepping out of the house. The device is designed as such that it could be operated via a mobile application, which uses a cellular network for communication and, thus, can be commanded with a person’s fingers itself.

Yog bought raw materials and electronics for INR 4000 to build the device. After which he connected the device and the motor’s switch. He coded an app, named Farm Helper, to operate the same. The Far Helper app enables its user to switch on or switch off the motor, even at scheduled timings, and also to operate lights connected in the motor’s room.

Yog says there are some further aspects that need to be worked on as he wants to include more features in the app which allow measuring the soil moisture and temperature. The next step that he wishes to take is to automate it, such that the sensors trigger irrigation when the parameters go below the prescribed limits and maintain optimum conditions for the crops. By doing so he will be able to market and commercialize the device.

An innovation that helped the entire farm fraternity

This development has not only allowed Yog’s father to have peaceful nights but also to save water and electricity. His father used to switch on the motor at 9 PM or later when the electricity was available and mostly, did not return until morning to switch it off. However, the crops needed water only for 2 to 3 hours but the water kept running overnight, thus a huge waste of water. Additionally, they have an 8 HP water pump that releases 1,20,000 liters of water in an hour. But groundwater level being low, it lifts only 40,000 liters. Due to this, the motor used to run for hours which also wasted lakhs of liters of water in a month. Also, running the motor overnight costs extra electricity. But now, both water and electricity will be saved.

Yog’s innovative app has become known among friends and relatives. They have asked him to make the same for them as well. Hence, Yog has got 6 orders for the device. His father, Dr. Suryakant, says that it makes him proud that besides him, Yog will be able to help the farming community at large. His father adds that he could now spend more time with his family and will not have to worry about the crops also.

Yog believes that the Internet of Things (IoT) is easing operations in many sectors, and it is time that farmers also reap its benefits. He hopes to develop more apps in the future that will help the farmers and benefit the environment.

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