Media Release

Udupi, Apr 8: Final year Mechanical Engineering students at Shri Madhwa Vadiraja Institute of Technology and Management (SMVITM), Bantakal have developed a ‘solar operated automatic seed sowing machine’.

The project work was carried out by Aishwarya, Kiran, Gurukiran and Likhith Yermal under the guidance of Dr Raja Yateesh Yadav, associate professor and head in the department of Mechanical Engineering.

At present, farmers are using conventional methods for sowing seeds in the farm lands. These conventional systems are manual, time consuming and use conventional fuels such as diesel. Also, the conventional systems require a lot of manpower and it is a big challenge for the farmers to complete the sowing process with the shortage of labour in the rural areas. Keeping this in mind, the students have developed ‘Solar operated automatic seed sowing machine’.

The machine uses a battery powered by solar photovoltaic cells, an eco-friendly system with zero emissions. There is a seed hopper through which sowing action takes place. The system is completely automated using arduino. Also, there is a provision for digging the soil to a depth of around 4 cm before the seed is dropped into the soil.

Spraying water or liquid fertilizers along with the sowing is an additional feature of this machine. This machine is most suitable for farmers cultivating groundnuts. Also, this machine will be a solution for the labour problems faced by the farmers in the rural areas.

The management, the principal Dr Thirumaleshwara Bhat and vice-principal Dr Ganesh Aithal have appreciated and congratulated the team.