India is an agro-based country. But farmers in India continue to face several issues – from water scarcity and debt to pest infections and poor market connections.

Solving these issues requires innovation at every level – including on the working of the humble water sprinkler.

These basic devices have a simple operational system. Each sprinkler rotates because of the pressure exerted on it by water.

And usually, this is where the process ends. But for some students from Bhilai, that is where the good idea began.

“When I learned about the electricity shortage faced by most farmers in our country, I was disturbed. I wanted to do something about it. While brainstorming ideas with my team, we remembered one of the lessons from our classes – the working principle of an irrigation sprinkler.” says Khushi Gupta, from the Atal Tinkering Lab of Delhi Public School Bhilai, Durg, Chhattisgarh.

We thought of converting the kinetic energy of the rotating sprinkler into electric energy with our prototype named ‘Electrode Sprinkler’,” Gupta added.

Farmers use approximately 25-30 sprinklers in their fields. And though it may not look like it, these are enough to generate electricity for the farm.

Initially, it was challenging for Khushi and her team to generate sufficient voltage. But they soon took the help of Khushi’s father, an electrical engineer, and turned their idea into reality.

“After a year of trial and error, we finally managed to generate close to 3.78 KW of energy through our innovation,” says Khushi.

“I am a science student and have always had a desire to contribute to society. When I heard of the ATL Tinkering Innovation Marathon, it sounded like the perfect platform to take up a project and impact society at large. Competitions like these are a great way to turn our theoretical knowledge into practical implementation. My team and I look forward to making it a commercially viable product and benefit as many farmers as possible,” she added.