COE on Protected Cultivation and Precision Farming inaugurated at Raipur Centre of Excellence on Protected Cultivation and Precision Farming at IGKV (Indira Gandhi Krishi VishwaVidyalaya),Raipur, a turnkey project developed by Harvel Agua India Private Limited was inaugurated by Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, Dr. Raman Singh concurrent to CII’s Rashtriya KrishiVikasMela Chhattisgarh, 2015 on 26th December. Agriculture Minister of Chhattisgarh, Mr. Brijmohan Agarwal was also present during the event. This is the 1st IndoSpanish facility where advanced technology for Automated control of agro-climatic factors has been customized for Indian conditions by Indo-Spanish experts and installed at Raipur.
The entire project including Concept, Designing, Installation and execution has been completed by Harvel Agua, INDIA in coordination with apr Greenhouses and technology (International Division of Novedades Agricolas, a WIND Group Company), SPAIN . The entire facility is spread across an area of 10 acres with different structures (Greenhouses, Walking Tunnels and Shade Net houses) for Protected cultivation of vegetables, flowers and medicinal plants. There are 4 greenhouses of 1 acre each, 8 walking tunnels in 1.4 acres and Shadenets of 3 acres. There are Weather Station based fully Automated Green houses in thisfacility in which the Agro-climatic conditions including Temperature, Humidity, Light, CO2 emission will be controlled as per the meteorological data received from the Weather station and Soil, Water and Nutrients would be maintained as per the need of the crops grown in the protected structures. Mr. Primal Oswal, Managing Director of Harvel Agua India Private Limited apprised the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, Dr. Raman Singh that this progressive technology will be further promoted by Harvel Agua in a structured manner.
The uniqueness of this COE is that the structures have the strength to resist Wind velocity of upto 140 km per hour. Shade-nets are more resistant to Wind as they rest on Zig zag wire structures instead of Profile fixing thereby improving the absorbing capacity and resistance to high speed wind flow. Germination chamber is also one of its kind as it offers to develop seedlings through all the 4 stages of Germination (Seedling, Germination Room, Nursery and Hardening Chamber).Operational Germination Chambers in the country offer to develop only the first two stages.
This project will serve as a DTTC (Demonstration cum Technology Transfer Center) where high yielding varieties of high value Fruits, Vegetables and Flowers viz. Cucumber, Cherry Tomato, Coloured Capsicum, Gerbera, Musk Melon would be developed. This will also act as a Training Center for IGKV to disseminate knowledge about the novel agricultural practices so that they are able to increase their return on investment from agriculture. Two training have already been provided to scientists and progressive farmers in this facility during the course of the project development. One of them was provided by 2 Israeli experts on agronomical practices to be followed in high value crops in soil-less medium and the other on Automation by a Spanish expert on Greenhouse equipment for Automation.