Abstract:

Spraying of pesticides is an important task in agriculture for protecting the crops from insects. Farmers presently using hand operated or fuel operated knapsack sprayers for this task. This paper discussed about different types of solar sprayers developed by several researchers with an aim to reduce human drudgery while spraying in field and as part of pollution free and environment friendly green energy. Some advantages and drawbacks of solar sprayers have been identified, discussed and future need of research in line of development of green technologies have been presented in this paper. Comprehensive solution towards solving future energy needs of agriculture is attempted in this study. Spraying is not a continuous operation round the year. So, the same PV system available in solar sprayers can be utilized for energizing other farm operations such as pumping, farm lighting etc. One of the factors which affect the use of conventional electricity or fuel is increasing prices and its non-availability at peak time in rural area. The available solar sprayers used by the farmers are having low field coverage capacities, creating health hazards due to direct inhaling of spray drift and thus, polluting the environment with engine operated sprayers. Therefore, the emphasis should be given on design and developing independent renewable power source which can give uninterrupted energy and fulfill energy demand of remotely located farmers for operating various farm equipments.

Description:

Solar Power, Agricultural, Sprayers.