Automatic gate design model from wood & tire for farmers

Indonesia is one of the potential paddy farming area in Southeast Asia, and North Sumatra Province is one of many provinces that provides it. Yet, Indonesia is still importing rice from foreign country, eventhough today the government has been willing to supply its own need. Almost 10% irrigation areas in Indonesia are connected to sea current, which means it must have a system to manage the circulation of fresh water and block the seawater from entering the irrigation area through the irrigation channel. Many systems use gates to control the water management, and most of them are using automatic sluice gate because the gates are usually positioned far from village, this makes the manual operating become difficult. Unfortunately, not all farmers can use this kind of gate due to its accessibility and cost. This research was done to design the automatic gates, which are easy to build, user friendly, low cost and dependable. In the future, poor farmers or farmers who do not have connection to government, can make this gate by themselves. The research was conducted in laboratory, using flume, pumps, reservoir, and gate prototype.