The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has come up with a very interesting solution to deal with the problem of a weed named water hyacinth and transform this ‘waste’ into wealth.
ICRISAT scientists are working towards developing digital tools and techniques to monitor the weed by using satellite data and thus, facilitating efficient utilisation of water hyacinth biomass.
The scope of digital intervention to utilise the floating weed became evident during the Odisha Livelihood Mission project. This led to the harvesting of water hyacinth plants and the biomass produced was used to make high-quality compost by mixing it with paddy straw and cow dung. This simple technique helped local women become self-reliant by turning simple waste into wealth.
Scientist, ICRISAT Development Centre, Aviraj Datta said, “Utilisation of water hyacinth biomass through aerobic composting technique has potential for wide-scale adoption and impact. There are more than 2,000 water hyacinth-infested water bodies in Puri district of Odisha alone. Scale-up of such interventions is possible even for large-scale infested water bodies such as Lake Victoria in Africa, which has an approximate water surface area of 59,947 square kilometres.”
ICRISAT and its partners — University of Stirling, Scotland; University of Strathclyde, Scotland; National Institute of Plant Health Management (NIPHM), Sanatana Dharma College (SDC), Alappuzha, Kerala, and CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organization (CSIO), Chandigarh — are working on the project ‘Weed Watch’ to develop digital tools that would enable real-time monitoring of water hyacinth using freely available multi-spectral satellite data like Sentinel-1 or Sentinel-2.
The commercialisation of water hyacinth biomass can also boost alternative livelihood opportunities and can be used to create a wide range of products and art crafts. Sanatana Dharma College has successfully incubated a few start-ups.
Senior scientist, Digital Agriculture, ICRISAT, Srikanth Rupavatharam, said, “The potential use of AI tools and data captured via drones, satellites, and MPro app developed by ICRISAT, ensure optimum use of water hyacinth biomass. It will provide a better understanding of the impact of water quality on water hyacinth infestation and estimation of the growth rate and nature of the mat.”
“The combination of known science of composting and cutting-edge AI-based tools aims to turn the challenge into an opportunity. ICRISAT and its partners’ research findings would be an actual demonstration of the power of ‘Science of Delivery,” said Global Research Program director, Resilient Farm and Food Systems, ICRISAT, Sreenath Dixit.
