Mysore/Mysuru: India being a tropical country, the temperatures during summer rise up to 40-45°C. Due to this the ring wells, which supply water for agricultural land lacking irrigation, dry up to alarming levels. This puts lot of hardship on farmers, who depend on ring wells for irrigation.

The students of Civil Engineering at the National Institute of Engineering (NIE), Mysuru, have come out with an innovative solution to increase the yield of ring well without increasing the diameter of ring wells. Their solution involves introduction of slotted and perforated laterals in radially outward direction along the circumference of the ring well. This enables the farmers to achieve more yield without increasing the diameter of the ring well.

The student team comprising Shashank S. Shastry, Sharanprasad B. Rajesh, M. Shivaprasad and L. Sanjay Raj of pre-final year, under the supervision of Dr. H.S. Prasanna, Professor in Civil Engineering and Dean (Planning & Infrastructure), carried out the research study in two stages. The preliminary experiments were carried out in the college laboratories, which was followed by extensive trails in the field.

Through rigorous testing, an increase in yield of 20% was observed in laboratory and about 40% of yield increase was observed in the field. The students presented the research outcome in the virtual conference (Indian Geotechnical Conference 2021) held by the Indian Geotechnical Society under the theme of Geotechnical, Geological and Geophysical Investigation with the title “A Parametric study of the Yield of Ring Well – A Practical Approach”.

The paper was adjudged as the Best Technical Paper in the theme and accepted for publication in the Springer journal with a cash prize of 100 Euros was awarded to the team. Research scholars, NGOs and farmers, who are interested in details, can contact the Centre for Research & Consultancy (CRC), NIE on Mob: 94490-89784, according to a press release from Dr. N.V. Raghavendra, Principal, NIE.