Development and Implementation of Arduino-based Birds Repellent for Farmers

The problem faced by rice farmers in terms of bird scaring is quite worrisome and demands urgent intervention especially at this critical period in the history of our dear country when the price of rice is increasing almost on daily basis as a result of land border closure against the importation of rice coupled with covid-19 pandemic and inability of indigenous farmers to meet up with local consumption demands. According to the local reports in Nigeria, quelea birds invasions of many major rice farms in Jigawa, Kebbi, Kano, Kaduna, Ogun and Ekiti account for over 15 % loss in rice production yearly. This has been one of the major discouraging factors affecting rice production in Nigeria. Unchecked birds invasion of farm badly affects the quantity and quality of farm produce. The use of women and children in tedious and laborious work of bird scaring should be discouraged because it negatively affect productivity as precious time is devoted on birds scaring process thereby affecting other food production activities. This work is therefore centred on the development of a microcontroller-based bird repellent capable of automatically sensing the presence of birds on the farm and consequently produces sudden and loud sound that scares them. Eight strategically arranged PIR motion-detection sensors were used. These sensors detect the presence of birds on the farm and outputs 5 V signal at their output terminals connected to the arduino board. The arduino is programmed to activate industrial sirens located at different positions on the farm. The sirens in turn produce sound loud enough to scare the birds away. The developed bird repellent is also modified to produce loud sound for three seconds every half-hour.