‘Farm Guard’ wins first prize at Agri Rural Ideathon 2026

At a time when Kerala is desperately exploring sustainable solutions for human-wildlife conflict, the first prize at an ideathon on farm and rural-oriented technologies held here on Friday has gone to a handy ‘automatically-controlled animal repelling electronic device’ developed by a young innovator from Thavanur.

Jishoy V.V. describes the portable device, christened ‘Farm Guard,’ as an ‘intelligent and non-lethal deterrence.’ It has been designed keeping in mind farmers in regions prone to human-wildlife conflict.

On Friday, Farm Guard won first prize at the ‘Agri Rural Ideathon 2026’ held at the College of Agriculture, Vellayani. The event was organised by K-AgTech LaunchPad, a NABARD-funded collaborative project of the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), the Western Sydney University and industry partners.

“It is essentially a sensor-based device which gets activated and emits sound and light on the approach of an animal. The light and sound are produced in different patterns and frequencies, but are totally unconnected to animal sounds,” Mr. Jishoy told The Hindu. Farm Guard, which operates in both day and night modes, is fitted with three lights, a speaker and 360 degree-sensors. Placed along farm boundaries, it continuously monitors its environs. “The changing patterns of light and sound prevent the animals from becoming accustomed to the device over time,” he said.

Farm Guard is powered by a rechargable battery, which can be charged either through an AC power supply or by connecting it to a suitably-rated solar power panel.

“It was initially developed to keep wild boars at bay. Later, it was expanded for tackling wild elephants,” Mr. Jishoy said.