Technology

Water hyacinth infestations in rural ponds disrupt ecosystems, harm fisheries, and block canals. (Image source: ICRISAT)

ICRISAT's solar-powered water hyacinth harvester, designed and fabricated in-house by a team of scientists received its first grant, boosting its ability to be used with ease by rural farming communities 

The solar-powered equipment offers substantial benefits, including 50–60% savings in cost, time, and labour, while prioritising using clean energy. Being priced at under US$2,357 makes it an ideal choice for farmers who are unable to afford more expensive, sophisticated machinery. 

Water hyacinth is widely known to be a destructive weed that infests rural ponds, disrupts ecosystems, harms fisheries and blocks canals. Their ability to rapidly grow and proliferate into over 600,000 plants within 6-8 months makes them difficult to control. While chemical and biological removal of this weed is too expensive and unsustainable in the long term, manual or mechanical harvesting is seen as an option. 

The harvester was developed as part of the 'Sustainable Valorisation of Water Hyacinth Biomass through Aerobic Composting as a Rural Enterprise—A Waste to Wealth Initiative' project supported by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers' Empowerment, Government of Odisha, India.

Dr ML Jat, research programme director of Resilient Farm and Food Systems, ICRISAT explained that their experiments successfully demonstrated that 72,000 kg of water hyacinth can be mechanically harvested from a 1.2 ha pond in just two to three days by a team of two or three people. Manual harvesting however, required 10-20 labourers and took 18-20 days to complete. 

Additionally, women-led enterprises such as self-help groups (SHGs) can play a key role in converting biomass into compost, fish feed, or handmade paper, thereby creating significant socio-economic and environmental impacts.

“Water hyacinth infestation is a global environmental challenge. This cost-effective harvester reflects ICRISAT’s dedication to creating environment-friendly solutions tailored to the needs of rural communities that are also technologically and economically sustainable,” stated Dr Stanford Blade, director general-interim of ICRISAT, while commending the team behind the mechanical harvester.

Josef Fliegl und Bernd Stapel. (Image source: Fliegl)

Leading international manufacturer of agricultural transport solutions, Fliegl Agrartechnik GmbH and slurry technology and special solutions expert, Stapel GmbH recently announced their strategic collaboration aiming to utilise and expand existing synergies in the field of liquid manure technology and agricultural semi-trailer tractor units

The focus lies in developing solutions that make the agricultural use of tractor units more efficient and meet future requirements. The cooperation will drive forward product development and aims to boost efficiency by pooling the respective expertise and developing more efficient solutions in the field of slurry technology and agricultural tractor units. 

“This cooperation offers both companies the opportunity to combine their strengths and jointly develop innovative products for the agricultural machinery industry," explained Josef Fliegl, Jr managing director of Fliegl Agrartechnik GmbH. "We see enormous potential in the cooperation with Stapel to be able to offer our customers even more efficient and economical solutions in the future.” 

Users of CLAAS equipment can bring their machine data into CropX for visualisation, analysis, and creation of variable rate application tasks. (Image source: CropX)

Global precision agronomy platform, CropX recently announced its new digital connection with global agri machinery manufacturer, CLAAS, thereby allowing users of CLAAS equipment to bring their machine data into CropX for visualisation, analysis, and creation of variable rate application tasks

The CropX agronomic farm management system combines data gathered from satellites and the field with agronomic knowledge and advanced AI-assisted machine learning to offer a comprehensive understanding of what is happening in the soil.

Users receive a snapshot of field conditions and receive recommendations on irrigation timing and quantity, nitrogen leaching, and fungal disease crop protection. In addition, users can import data from the world's most popular agricultural machinery brands, of which CLAAS is the latest. The data can be visualised and used to create maps for variable rate application of seeding, fertigation, and irrigation, and harvest yield maps can be added for planning future seasons.

"With CLAAS Connect and the new interface with CropX, we offer our joint customers enhanced interoperability between systems," said Wolf-Christian von Wendorff, SVP of Global Digital Solutions at CLAAS. "The seamless integration of agronomic data into the CropX platform enables customers to boost their productivity through informed decision-making, thereby enhancing the efficiency of practices such as irrigation."

One of the main advantages of the new wheel positioning is the lower centre of gravity which allows the plough to be subjected to lower rotational forces, in turn resulting in less strain on the rear lift. (Image source: LEMKEN)

Following the launch of the LEMKEN Diament 16 that was launched six years ago, the new Diament 18 model was presented at EIMA 2024 that took place from 6-10 November in Bologna, Italy

Being a key tool for large agricultural businesses, semi-mounted reversible ploughs, are increasingly used for both traditional in-furrow and on-land ploughing. Often used either as a stand-alone machine or in combination with a furrow press, the Diament series has always offered a wide range of applications to meet individual farm requirements for shallow or deep tillage.

To demonstrate that the Diamant plough series continues to stand for power and reliability, LEMKEN presented a new model at EIMA in Bologna: Diament 18 which enables the plough specialist to address an additional target group. 

With its 5 to 8 furrows and a solid 180 x 180 x 12.5 mm box section frame, the robust Diamant 18 is specially designed for large tractors up to 650 hp and extreme operating conditions. Thanks to its optimum soil penetration and stable design, the new LEMKEN plough exhibits exceptional performance particularly on dry soils. The position of the support wheel has been conveniently updated in order to ensure ideal usage of the extra frame weight, thereby allowing reliable soil penetration and maintaining desirable and consistent working depth.

One of the main advantages of the new wheel positioning is the lower centre of gravity which allows the plough to be subjected to lower rotational forces, in turn resulting in less strain on the rear lift. The protects the plough components, while also ensuring high tipping stability of the tractor/plough combination and a smooth ride. In comparison to the Diament 16, the new model also offers agility and comfortable handling, owing to the innovative steering system for the transport wheel.

The transport wheel also has a hydraulic steering which automatically adapts the steering angle to the turning manoeuvre. In combination with the 90 degree steering angle on the plough headstock, this feature enables the smallest possible turning radii at the headland. Moreover, the transport wheel can be actively controlled and manually steered for manoeuvring work.

The Diament 18 will initailly be available in small quantities from next year and will begin full series production in 2026.