Rural and climate-proof farming by technology and smart hand tools
With peer to peer education about smart farming we increase food security and make farming attractive for youngsters by technology and start-ups for income.
80% of the people in Nepal are farmers and still farming in the traditional way, by hand. This makes farming a tough job. That is why youngsters from Nepal choose not to become farmers. Instead, they leave the country for a paid job in other countries. As a result, many men live abroad, far away from their families and communities and food security in Nepal is at risk.
That’s why I, Pradeep Sapkota started the SUNWay Innovation Centre (SRIC) to create informal education, research, experiment and entrepreneurship about ICT, technology and agriculture innovation with youth, women and young farmers in my community. To make agriculture attractive for youngsters and contribute to smart farming, food security, job creation and to stop the brain drain in Nepal.
In the video I will tell you more about the importance of agriculture innovation by technology and informal education.
Smart hand tools and Tech solutions
In the SUNWay Innovation Centre we offer ICT basic training and Technology education by which youngsters, students can develop smart hand tools and technology solutions for smart farming. And by which young farmers can be trained to use the new tools and devices.
My dream is to develop the SRIC Centre as a community based smart farming demo centre that can be copied by youngsters in other communities and villages in Nepal and worldwide. So that all rural farmers get access to the low tech, affordable devices and smart hand tools and youngsters become proud to be farmer again.
Smart hand tool: the Wheel Hoe
Building of the smart Greenhouse
Innovation by technology: the irrigation robot
3D printed: the Anenometer for the weather station
Right now I am working on a weather station, an online platform for data collecting and an app to control technical systems such as drip irrigation, ventilation, soil measuring etc. by which farmers can keep an eye on their crops while turning on and off the systems from home or any place. In this way the agriculture work become less hard and the yields increase. This innovation is very important at the moment, because of the climate change.
The importance of the weather station
In Nepal, farmers cannot get real-time weather data. Data informing them of temperature, humidity, wind direction, wind speed, soil moisture, PH, rainfall, etc. IoT-based weather stations help farmers receive and interpret current weather data so they can easily be able to take action in case of drought, heavy rain, etc. With the data and action, they are able to protect their crops in time and increase their yield.
That’s why at SRIC we started building our own weather station from scratch by assembling hardware (sensors) and coding. In this way we have built our own mobile and web applications to monitor weather data. Through this self-learning approach, we are now able to teach young people, students and educators how to build their own affordable weather station and teach farmers how to install and operate the weather station in their fields.
What we need to bring the weather station project to the next level
To make the next steps in development and increase the impact of the weather station and mobile application, we want to start collecting the data from 10 places on our platform.
Besides the devices we need per weather station, we also need the construction and online data platform.
To build the 10 weather stations including the construction and online data platform we need in total € 3640,00.
If you want to help with the start capital for the 10 weather stations, pleas visit the crowdfunding campaign by clicking on the image below.
Crowdfunding campaign SRIC weather stations project
I am looking forward to bring SRIC and the weather station project to the next level with and for youngsters and young farmers in Nepal.
For any question, please contact me via mail: sric.network@gmail.com
We greatly appreciate any help.
Pradeep Sapkota
Everything we do is based on the SDGs 2, 4, 8 and 17: Food security by informal education on agriculture and technology topics but also social entrepreneurship for decent work and employment in collaboration with local and international partners.
