During our first year at Pulchowk Campus, we developed the Smart Fertigation System as our inaugural project for Locus 2023. Locus 2023 was a three-day exhibition where we showcased our project to thousands of visitors and pitched it to hundreds of them. We're grateful to the Locus 2023 team for this opportunity. Fertigation combines irrigation and fertilization into one process. Our project's goal was to mix essential fertilizers in precise proportions with water and deliver them to plants based on their needs. The system provided information about temperature, humidity, soil moisture level in mobile app.

Fig: Prototype developed for the event

The Prototype was designed for mustard plant with its nutrient intake capability. The designed system ran into two modes, automatic mode and manual mode. In automatic mode, the system self decides the amount of fertilizers to be mixed and amount to be sent. While in manual mode, one can manually start the motors for desired fertilizer and do the job. The nutrient volume was determined by the runtime of motors incorporated in the system.

Fig: App in development phase

The prototype consisted of Arduino UNO as the microcontroller. It used DHT11 temperature and humidity sensor for atmospheric data, Soil moisture sensor for the soil information. Three submersible motors were put in separate three tanks for N, P and K fertilizers tank which feeded into main mixing tank. Then a final main motor drives the mixed fertilizer into the necessary plant. The motors were drove using relay modules signaled by the arduino microcontroller. The system had HC-05 bluetooth module communicating in 9600 baud rate for information sharing between system and mobile phone. The task was done by building an android app from mit app inventor.

We pitched and showcased the project to many people. I personally presented it to MahaNayak of Nepalese Movie Industry Mr. Rajesh Hamal, entrepreneur Sanjog Koirala, former Health Minister Toshima Karki, and others. Foreign visitors were curious about our work and praised our dedication as first-year students. We received valuable suggestions from several individuals. Overall, it was a great learning experience in engineering applications, hardware, software, Arduino programming, troubleshooting, public speaking, and openness.

Fig: Myself Sudip Adhikari(left) and one of Project Partner Prajwal Pudasainee (Right)