Agrivoltaics, the practice of combining agriculture with solar energy production, offers a promising solution to enhance both agricultural productivity and renewable energy generation. It involves installing solar panels above agricultural fields, providing dual benefits of harnessing solar energy and optimizing land use. Agrivoltaics can be classified into different categories based on their configurations and applications:

Agrivoltaics can significantly benefit farmers' income and sustainable agriculture in various ways:

• Enhanced Crop Yield: The shading provided by solar panels can mitigate the negative impact of extreme temperatures, reducing heat stress on crops and enhancing productivity.
• Water Conservation: Agrivoltaics can reduce water evaporation from the soil, leading to water conservation, especially in arid regions.
• Diversified Income Streams: Farmers can earn income not only from agricultural produce but also from the sale of renewable energy generated by the solar panels.
• Risk Mitigation: The dual-use of land reduces the economic risk associated with relying solely on agriculture by diversifying income sources.
• Climate Resilience: Agrivoltaics contribute to climate change mitigation by increasing renewable energy generation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from traditional energy sources.
• Land Optimization: The practice optimizes land use by combining energy production with crop cultivation, addressing land scarcity issues.

In summary, agrivoltaics offers an innovative and sustainable approach that has the potential to boost farmers' income, improve agricultural resilience, and contribute to the transition to clean energy. It exemplifies a smart farming strategy that maximizes the utilization of land while addressing energy and food security challenges.

Dr Ashis Das thank you for your contribution to the discussion

Agrivoltaics, also known as AgroPhotoVoltaics (APV), is a concept of co-locating agricultural activities and solar energy production in the same land area. In other words, it is the practice of integrating solar panels into agricultural land to generate renewable energy while also utilising the land for farming. Agrivoltaic farming is the simultaneous use of areas of land for both solar photovoltaic power generation and agriculture. It involves combining crops with photovoltaic panels to maximize land use. In other words, the practice of growing crops underneath solar panels. Systems can be classified into two categories, namely open agrivoltaic systems and the closed agrivoltaic system. Stand-alone PV Systems can be divided into three categories: Without Battery, With Battery, and Hybrid PV Systems. Without Battery systems are Direct-Coupled systems, and With Battery systems may include Self-Regulating DC Systems or AC Systems with a charge controller for the battery and load. Agrivoltaic systems combine, on one plot of land, crops and dynamic photovoltaic panels in order to optimize the land's potential without damaging ecosystems. Solar energy is converted into thermal energy using a special kind of heat exchanger known as a solar collector. Solar collectors can be classified into two general categories: (i) non-concentrating and (ii) concentrating. An agrivoltaic system (AVS) offers a potential strategy for meeting global demands for renewable energy and sustainability by integrating photovoltaics and agriculture. Many empirical studies have installed facilities and cultivated actual crops, revealing that AVSs improve land use efficiency.Smart agro farm is a low cost solar powered soil and weather monitoring system which analyses the different soil properties and weather conditions and thereby developing a hi-tech smart farm set up for farmers.