Thesis Abstract

Water is a critical input for both agricultural production as well as domestic use. However, lack of access to affordable and reliable water testing facilities is a major challenge faced by small and marginal farmers as well as rural households. The proposed project aims to develop low-cost water testing kits that can be easily used by farmers and local communities to test important water quality parameters like pH, dissolved oxygen, salinity, heavy metals, etc. The kits will utilize simple colorimetric/titrimetric methods and locally available materials as far as possible to keep the costs low. Prototypes of the kits will be developed and tested with water samples from different sources. The performance of the kits will be evaluated and compared with standard laboratory methods. If found satisfactory, the kits can help in regular monitoring of water quality and taking timely corrective actions.

Thesis Overview