Developing farmer friendly technologies
:As a part of a course called “Synthesis and Analysis of Mechanisms” at Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN), students of the institute have developed working prototypes of machines designed for agricultural operations that farmers typically perform manually. The Prototypes were displayed in the institute’s campus on Thursday (April 20, 2017).
These prototypes include electric powered paddy harvester, pedal operated threshing machine, fruit harvester, onion harvester, pedal operated wheat harvester, manual milking machine, pesticide sprayer and a three-in-one plough.
IITGN faculty and instructor of the course, Prof Vineet Vashista, said, “The main aim of the class project is to study various farming operations and develop technical solutions to improve the output by reducing manual labour. In brief, we are seeking the development of machines or mechanisms that can help perform various farming tasks efficiently.”
Prof Vashista said, “Farming plays a very important role worldwide. With world population growing every year, the food requirement is increasing while the land available for farming is depleting. This requires the farmers to produce more from the limited resources. In the absence of any miraculous discovery that increases the harvest production quickly, the best way forward is to improve the efficiency of various farming tasks.”
Most of the prototypes developed by the students were aimed to develop affordable devices which will decrease the amount of labour used by the farmers while addressing agronomical issues.
One of the student team which developed the milking machine, Subodh Kumar, said, “The most common issues faced by farmers include knee joint and spine issues related to carrying heavy loads and bending down for long hours to work. This is why we developed this affordable device to milk cows without having to bend down through the process.” The onion harvester was another device which did not require the farmers to bend down.
A pesticide and fertilizer sprayer was also developed, which sprays automatically as the machine is pushed through the field. A lever connected to the wheels of the cart moves the pump of the spray gun. Karan Gohil, one of the students from the team who developed it said,
“Carrying the tanks of fertilizer or pesticides on the back can be harmful to the spines in the long run. Our prototype tries to reduce this issue of carrying heavy loads on the back through an affordable device.”
The display also had a device called “PlowBot” which is a three-in-one machine to plow, sow seeds and harrow the soil in one go.
Vinod Ramakrishnan, a student who was a part of a team which developed the device, said, “These processes are usually done with tractors. But all the farmers cannot afford tractors. However, these manually operated devices could cost as low as two thousand rupees when mass produced and sold in the market.”