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1 Introduction
The aim of this document is to propose our project - CROP PROTECTION
SYSTEM, which aims to address the problem of crop vandalization by wild
animals. It describes the problems that are faced by our farmers due to wild
animal attack on their fields and orchards along with the current solutions and
methods that have been adopted to address this problem. It then describes
our project proposal and elucidates our method of addressing this problem i.e.
how this project can solve this problem. The main aim of this project is to
provide an effective solution to this problem, so that the economic losses
incurred by our farmers are minimized and they have a good crop yield.
2 Motivation
2.1 Problem description and social impact
The problem of wild animal attacks on crop fields i.e. crop vandalization
is becoming a very common phenomenon in the state of Himachal Pradesh,
Punjab, Haryana and many other states. Wild animals like monkeys, estray
animals especially cows and buffaloes, wild dogs, nilgais, bisons, elephants
deer, wild pigs and even birds like parakeets cause a lot of damage to crops
either by running over them or eating them and vandalizing them completely.
This leads to poor yield of crops. These animals attack on fruit orchards and
destroy the flowerings and fruits. In both cases, this leads to significant
financial loss to the farmers and orchard owners. The problem is so
pronounced that sometimes farmers decide to leave the area barren due to
these animal attacks.
The problem of monkeys is especially more pronounced in the hill state
of Himachal Pradesh. Groups of wild monkeys attack fields in the Una District
mainly in the border areas of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab and cause a lot of
financial loss to farmers. The scenario is same in District Shimla, which is
famous for its apple orchards. Monkeys cause a lot of havoc in the apple
orchards and ultimately lead to financial losses to owners. In District Kangra
and Hamirpur, the problem of estray cows, buffaloes and wild pigs is more
pronounced. Herds of cows attack the fields, destroy the crops and almost
render the fields useless for the rest of the season.
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The state of Kerala faces similar problems where animals like Asian
elephants, wild pigs, Indian crested porcupine, Indian giant squirrel, Indian
peafowl and other birds vandalize the crops causing great financial losses. It
has been estimated that at minimum conservative average damage per
household of ₹ 6,000, 15 million families could suffer a cumulative loss of
₹ 9,000 crore every year. This is a very huge amount to loose in a country like
India.
2.2 Currently adopted solutions and their disadvantages
Currently we have solutions which are almost ineffective or are very
expensive. They may be effective for one or two animals but they prove to be
useless in case large no. of animals. Some of the methods are listed below.
2.2.1 Physical barriers
This is the most ineffective way of protecting the fields. The farmers
usually erect wooden logs and bamboo sticks at the borders of their fields.
Some even resort to use dried plants and bushes. Clearly this method almost
proves to be almost useless as the barriers don't have the required physical
strength to withstand animal attacks. Construction of brick walls, although a
good method, is very expensive. Thus physical barriers prove to be almost
ineffective in protecting fields from the animal attacks.
2.2.2 Human puppets and effigies
This is yet another way in which farmers erect human puppets and
effigies in their fields. This method may prove to be helpful in warding off birds
but is ineffective against wild animals.
2.2.3 Electric fences
Some frustrated farmers may put up electric fences around their fields.
This is illegal and is very dangerous. It may cause fatal injuries to animals and
even lead to human causalities due to shock hazards. It also leads to a great
wastage of electric power.
2.2.4 Manual surveillance
Farmers also resort to manual surveillance of their fields, which is both
time consuming and highly ineffective, as they can't keep an eye on whole of
their farm at the same time. Due to this they may hire persons for watching
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over their fields for whole of the days and nights, which proves to be highly
expensive as the persons hired need to be paid full wages.
3 Our project proposal
3.1 Project summary
This project aims to provide an effective solution to the problem stated
above in the form of an ELECTRONIC SURVILLENCE SYSTEM. This system will
enable the farmers to protect their fields and orchards effectively, without any
human intervention, by warding off the animals with automatically controlled
ultrasonic animal repellent buzzers, electronic fireworks and even hooters. It
will also enable them to remotely monitor their fields from any place, thus
eliminating the need of physical presence of a person in the fields.
3.2 Project description
3.2.1 Components
This project is basically an ELECTRONIC SURVELLIENCE SYSTEM, with
following major components.
3.2.1.1 Camera
The major component of this system is a camera, which continuously
monitors the fields for any animal activities.
3.2.1.2 Microcomputer
This component acts as the brain of the system. Its work is to manage all
the components of the system. It is responsible for the processing the video
feed from the camera and automatic switching of the buzzers. It will also
enable the farmers to monitor their fields remotely.
3.2.1.3 Ultrasonic buzzer
This is also a very critical component of the system. Its work is to ward
off the animals from fields. As this is an ultrasonic buzzer, its inaudible to
humans but is totally audible to animals. Thus without creating any noise
pollution, animals are driven off the fields. As continued use of buzzer might
make animals immune to it, the buzzer would be switched on automatically
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only after animals are detected in the fields, thus avoiding the animals from
becoming immune to the buzzer.
3.2.1.4 Passive Infra Red sensor (PIR)
This component is used to provide a higher level of accuracy by assisting
the camera. It can also act as a backup sensor in case our camera fails.
3.2.2 Working of the system
High level view of the system
The camera and the other components are connected to the
microcomputer which is turned on 24x7 for the whole day. The camera
continuously monitors the fields and provides the video feed to the
microcomputer. Acting as the brain of the system, the microcomputer
continuously checks for the motion in the field or orchard. If any kind of
motion is detected in the field, the microcomputer checks for the presence of
animals in the image. If any animal is found, buzzers are turned on. The system
ensures that the alarm is not triggered by the presence of a human in the field,
or via any random motion. The system also provides real-time images of the
field over the internet, which can be viewed by using a web browser on devices
like computer and mobile, and the buzzer can be turned on manually if the
need arises (due to the inability of the system to turn the buzzer on
automatically for some reason).
CAMERA MICROCOMPUTER
Sound buzzer if animal is
there in field
Continue monitoring
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3.2.3 Merits and features of this system
This system is very effective and carries following features and merits in
comparison to the other solutions that exist in the current time.
3.2.3.1 Effective, accurate and adaptive
This system is very effective in driving off the animals from the fields and
keeping them away. It accurately determines the presence of animals in the
fields and sounds the buzzer. It does not sound the buzzer due to the presence
of a human being or due to some random motion. The ultrasonic buzzer is very
effective against animals and causes no noise pollution.
The system is very adaptive in nature. We are using advanced machine
learning techniques in the system. Due to this the system can be trained to
detect different types of animals. This feature of the system makes it highly
adaptable to the local sites of deployment. For e.g. it can be trained for
detecting monkeys at some place, whereas at some other place, it can be
trained to detect estray cows, buffaloes, elephants and even birds. Thus the
system is not limited to the detection of only particular type of animals. This
make it suitable for different areas of our country.
3.2.3.2 Requires no human supervision
This system requires almost no human supervision, except for the task of
switching the system on and off. The system is capable of turning the buzzers
on automatically and warding off the animals thus protecting the fields from
any damage.
3.2.3.3 Economical
This system is economical as compared to many of the existing solutions
like electric fences, brick walls and manual supervision of the fields. The cost of
the existing solutions is very high and the cost of this system is only a fraction
of their cost. Thus it saves a lot of money of the farmer.
3.2.3.4 Real time monitoring
This system works in real time to detect the animals in the fields. The
system enables the farmer to have a real time view of his fields from any place
via internet and even provides manual buzzer controls if the need arises to use
them. Thus the farmer is in effective control of the system and can manually
sound the buzzer if needed. The system also provides a history of the events
taking place in the fields, in the form of images and textual log records.
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3.2.3.5 Causes no harm to animals and humans
This system is totally harmless and doesn't injure animals in any way. It
also doesn't cause any harm to humans. Also this system has a very low power
requirement thus reducing the hazards of electric shocks.
3.2.3.6 Highly flexible
This system, although primarily aimed at crop protection, can be used
for other purposes also. It may be used as a remote monitoring system, or as a
standalone system. Thus it can be installed at places like godowns, places
prone to robbery, shops, offices etc.
4 Conclusion
The problem of crop vandalization by wild animals has become a major
social problem in current time. It requires urgent attention as no effective
solution exists till date for this problem. Thus this project carries a great social
relevance as it aims to address this problem. This project will help farmers in
protecting their orchards and fields and save them from significant financial
losses and will save them from the unproductive efforts that they endure for
the protection their fields. This will also help them in achieving better crop
yields thus leading to their economic well being.
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