New role: Future techies turn into campus farmers

250 engineers take part in India’s biggest rural technical fest Antahpragnya 2020

The Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies (RGUKT), Basar, is turning some of its engineering students into “campus farmers”. A contest ‘Campus Farming’ was part of its Antahpragnya 2020, India’s biggest rural technical festival. Approximately 250 engineers participated.

A team of students who call themselves ‘Techies for Karshaks; are keen on campus farming although they are not agriculture students but engineering students from various streams — mechanical, civil, metallurgy, chemical, electrical, electronic, computer science

■ NINE TEAMS of 20-30 members each began sowing spinach seeds in December last year. But bad weather delayed the process.

— at the university.

A majority of the participants were girls. The competition was held at RGUJT in the temple city of Basar, which is 180 km from Hyderabad.

Nine teams of 20-30 members each began sowing spinach seeds in December last year. But bad weather delayed the process. After the seeds were sown stray dogs played havoc in the fields. Fencing was too expensive. The campus provided a tractor to plough the fields. An agricultural device designed by RGUKT students that does three jobs — ploughing, sowing and spraying — was used.

The land was naturally fertile and no fertiliser was used, not

even organic ones. Some 30-35 days after the crop was sown, it had reached the stage when the quality of the crop could be judged by the 150 farmers invited to decide the champions. The mechanical engineering team walked away with the championship.

Aditya Alladi, who leads the initiative along with his team, said that `3,600 was spent on buying seeds and there was no other cost.

Mr Alladi said the initiative will continue after the competition. “This is the first ever novel campus farming contest held in India. This must inspire colleges with land at their disposal to seriously introduce campus farming as is done in the west,” he said.

The students themselves came up with the idea of ‘Techies for Karshak’. The weekend farming concept in the Mahesh Babu starrer Mahirishi has become a trend and inspired us to take up the Agriculture Challenge, said a student who is coordinating the event. The inspiration of the film is evident from the fact the promo made to promote ‘Techies for Karshak’ initiative used clips from the movie and some of the dialogues.

Assistant professor T. Rakesh Reddy f the bioscience and bioengineering department, RGUKT-Basar and coordinator, Innovation Incubation Entrepreneur Devel-opment cell, who guided the students, said that learning from this experience will pave way for tools and app development which will be helpful to farmers. “The Nirmal collector had ordered some machines made by our students earlier, such as the seed sowing machine and straw bailing machine,” he said.

“Why don’t we bring farmers under the government fold,” the students queried. “We have more than 33 lakh acres of government land across the country. More than half of that is barren and is not useful to anyone. This can be made use of by using technology and engineers. They can effectively use Government land and can generate more employment,” explained the young students.

A Sandeep, R Jyothsna MSVN Sai and Keerthana, the coordinators of the event, said students will spend a day with the farmers in a nearby locality, film their entire day, and interview them at the end on their problems and the solutions they are looking for. There is a prize for the best documentary.