Nano Ganesh is an innovation that is helping smallholder farmers across two Indian states to remotely turn their irrigation pumps ‘on’ and ‘off’ using their mobile phones. In an industry dominated by ringtones and games, this is a welcome move towards technology that serves development, said Vineeta Dixit, a principal consultant at the e-Governance Division of the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and IT, India.

Nano Ganesh is a GSM Mobile based remote control system exclusively for the use with water pump sets in agricultural areas. A farmer can control the pumps from any distance; check an availability of power supply at the pump end; acknowledge the on/off status of the water pump; and in some models, get alerts through calls if there is a theft attempt of the cable or pump.

The need for Nano Ganesh arose from the routine problems faced by farmers in operating irrigation pumps. In India and other parts of the developing world, a farmer may have to travel miles to turn on a water pump, and stay on the farm until irrigation is complete before returning – at any hour of the day, often late at night or early in the morning. There are, fluctuations in power supply, difficult terrains, fear of wild and dangerous animals on the way to pumps, hazardous locations of the pumps along the river or water storage beds, shock hazards, rains etc.

The clip below summarizes information on the application:

 

The technology requires a mobile connection and phone, along with a mobile modem that attaches to the starter on the irrigation pump. Using the phone, an assigned code number switches the pump’s starter off and on, and a particular tone signals the off/on status of the pump and the electrical supply at the pump location.

The application which was developed by Ossian Agro Automation, has been selected for recognition as a laureate in the Economic Development category for 2011, by The Tech Awards, The Tech Museum at San Jose, CA, USA. Currently, there are over 10 000 installations across the operational states in India.