Intelligent Agriculture

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Automated Irrigation Driven Hydroponic Fodder Production in Rainfed Agro-Ecosystems

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https://doi.org/10.54963/ia.v2i1.2365
Volume 2 Issue 1 (2026): In Progress
Copyright (c) 2026 Y. Pavan Kumar Reddy, B. Sahadeva Reddy
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Authors

  • Y. Pavan Kumar Reddy

    Department of Agronomy, Agricultural College, Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU), Mahanandi 518502, India
  • B. Sahadeva Reddy

    All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Integrated Farming Systems, Regional Agricultural Research Station, Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU), Maruteru 534122, India

Received: 3 September 2025; Revised: 2 November 2025; Accepted: 16 December 2025; Published: 3 March 2026

Hydroponic fodder production offers a climate-resilient solution to chronic green fodder shortages in water-scarce semi-arid regions. This study evaluated an automated automated irrigation–based hydroponic maize fodder system within a low-cost polyhouse (180 m2) at Ananthapuramu, India during Kharif 2020. Three bedding materials control (no bedding), paddy straw, and sorghum stover were compared under manual and automated irrigation. One kilogram of maize grain (₹16 kg−1) produced 2.65–4.40 kg green fodder within seven days, with sorghum stover achieving the highest yield (4.40 kg tray−1) and a 66.04% increase over control. The water requirement was 2 L tray−1 day−1 (14 L per cycle). Automation reduced irrigation labour by 12 man-days monthly (₹6,000 saving month−1) compared to the manual system requiring 12 man-days month−1 Water productivity ranged from 0.19–0.31 kg L−1 across treatments, with sorghum stover achieving the highest efficiency. Economic analysis revealed benefit–cost ratios of 0.37–0.87 per tray at market prices; however, system-level economics incorporating labour savings demonstrated a net annual return of ₹1,09,592, a payback period of 2.28 years, and a return on investment of 43.8%, indicating improved feasibility at the integrated system level. This research establishes that integrating automated irrigation with appropriate bedding materials improves viability under integrated system-level conditions and enhances resource-use efficiency for smallholder dairy systems.

Keywords:

Hydroponics Automated Irrigation Water Productivity Bedding Materials Labour Economics Maize Fodder Semi-Arid Agriculture

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