‘Agrinventions and innovations’ using rainwaterTyphoon season is just around the corner, and while this may be a bane for Metro Manila workers, for agricultural workers in the provinces, frequent and heavy rainfalls are a welcome change from the long drought of the summer.

There are more than a handful of inventions thought up by Filipino minds on using rainwater to help make the agricultural sector more efficient, and more productive.

 

  1. Automatic Rain Gauge

Philippine Rice Research Center Institute

PH 1/2015/000341 (Published)

Photo from https://www.philrice.gov.ph

PhilRice’s invention makes use of microcontrollers and sensor technology to monitor rainfall for more accurate weather data collection. According to Philrice, rainfall data is one of the most important factors being monitored by agronomists to determine how much water can be supplied to a farm or paddy. This is also important for planning of crop planting and harvesting.

  1. Advanced Remote Data Acquisition Unit

Department of Science and Technology - Advanced Science and Technology Institute

PH 2/2012/000525 (Registered)

Photo from https://asti.dost.gov.ph/

This utility model by DOST-ASTI does away with human intervention in logging several types of weather data including: air pressure, air temperature, air humidity, wind speed and direction, rain amount, among others. Just like the automatic rain gauge, transmission of the data can be sent via GSM/GPRS technology.  With various types of weather data that the device can gather, it is useful not just for agricultural research (such as planting schedules) but even for disaster-preparedness.

  1. Movable Apparatus for Harvesting and Filtering Rainwater

Antonio F. Mateo

PH 2/2017/000818 (Registered)

Photo from: https://www.aisf.or.jp/sgra-in-english/seminar14/DrAntonioMateo.pdf

Inventor Antonio F. Mateo’s rainwater harvesting tool is intended to reuse rainwater for home and industrial purposes, instead of allowing it to run off. According to the inventor,  this catchment and filtering device has the advantage of portability, and may be used by households or for small-scale irrigation.