The newly patented Fasal Kranti: The journey so far
Fasal was founded in 2018 with the idea of making precision farming more accessible and affordable to horticulturists. To achieve this, we have been working very hard and the latest fruit of our labor — the Fasal Kranti, was recently patented by the Indian Patent Office. This major achievement for Fasal Kranti, which has been in development since 2019, is a definite nod in the right direction for us at Fasal towards achieving our mission of driving a horticulture-led farming revolution globally.
As the design of Fasal Kranti fulfilled all three prerequisites required to achieve the patent — Innovation, Novelty, and Application — we would like to take this opportunity to celebrate the innovative technology powering Fasal Kranti and our team behind it.
What is Fasal Kranti?
Fasal Kranti is a solar-powered Internet of Things (IoT) system from Fasal. It is a plug-and-play system that can be assembled and deployed on a farm within 5 minutes anywhere in the world, without needing any technical expertise.
The device records many parameters from the farm in specific intervals, with the help of various sensors. The data collected is then processed into actionable advisories by using agronomic models, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML). Farmers are then alerted via the Fasal mobile app with advisories that are farm-level, crop-specific, and crop stage-specific. For instance, using the Fasal Kranti system, farmers can know if the soil on their farm has enough moisture, receive insights on rainfall and wind patterns as well as predictions on possible pest infestations much ahead of time to take the required action.
What is different about Fasal Kranti?
The Fasal Kranti is the first-of-its-kind standalone device that is equipped with 12 different sensors that measure various macroclimatic, microclimatic, and soil properties, such as canopy air pressure, canopy air temperature, canopy relative air humidity, leaf wetness, light intensity, solar intensity, wind speed, wind direction, rainfall, soil moisture, and soil temperature — giving the farmer a comprehensive picture of their farm. The knowledge required for operating it is simple and can be easily learned by any farmer.
The system packs several innovative technologies yet offers a simplified set-up for horticulturalists to understand their farms better, leverage Fasal Kranti’s real-time farm-specific inputs to cut down the usage of water for irrigation, reduce pesticide use and achieve an increase in output, thereby achieving predictable incomes for themselves.
In a nutshell, the Fasal Kranti is powered by three core technological aspects:
- IoT (Internet of things) to collect the data from the farm using sensors
- Agronomic models applied using AI & ML
- Mobile app for data and actionable advisories
The Fasal Kranti comes with a few upgrades which are highlighted below:
1. Removal of wire-based assembly to a sleek plug-and-play design with no wires to make it robust in farm setup. In the previous iteration (v3.0), wires being cut was a big issue.
2. Automation capability is added so that any farm automation system can be integrated. This is specifically useful in closed setups like greenhouses.
3. Futuristic and modular design so that it can be upgraded in the future with more advanced crop-specific sensors.
Challenges overcome to build this first-of-its-kind system:
The development cycle for Fasal Kranti started back in 2019, led by a team dedicated to making the device scalable and, at the same time, affordable to farmers. Like most development cycles, the Fasal Kranti was also beset with challenges that needed to be addressed. A few problems that we had encountered and solved on the way were:
1. How to make Fasal Kranti scalable?
By eliminating the dependency on-field engineers and by making the assembly plug-and-play and self-deployable.
2. How to make its assembly plug-and-play?
By eliminating the need to manually connect individual sensors in the device. This was achieved by the innovative design of an electromechanical connection using rolling ball head pogo pins.
3. How to make the system cost-effective?
By combining sensors into sub-assemblies and keeping the part count minimal. Also, by using as many standard parts as possible. For example, adhesive-based air vent stickers instead of vent plugs, custom cut UPVC weather-proof pipes, laser marking for branding instead of multiple stickers.
4. How to make sensor replacement easy?
By combining canopy sensors in a detachable sliding module which can easily be replaced by farmers.
5. Troubleshooting mechanism?
Firstly, by allowing external USB connections easily accessible. Secondly, by allowing the provision to replace sim cards externally. And finally, by making a dedicated diagnostic app that collects the log and shares it with the Fasal support team.
6. How to make the device ingress protected?
By using the right plastic part design principles and incorporating double O-ring protection in the main panel and using IP68 air vent stickers.
Equipped with this newly-patented Fasal Kranti, we hope that many more farmers/horticulturalists in our country and around the world can remove the guesswork out of farming, to introduce technology-backed smart farming practices to their crops.
