Rising up on a farm exposes youngsters to the other demanding situations of agriculture. Whilst some may shy clear of those problems, others see them as issues to unravel. The latter develop as much as turn out to be innovators, addressing issues via discovering new answers that reinforce potency and sustainability in agriculture — from specializing in bettering crop yield and retaining water to embracing natural farming.
Here’s a listing of 7 such farmers whose leading edge answers are converting the face of agriculture within the nation.
1. Tree scooter revolution
Ganapathi Bhat, a farmer from Mangaluru has innovated an easy-to-use ’tree scooter’ to reap areca fingers. This has helped farmers cut back dependence on labourers and harvest 300 areca fingers in an afternoon, which is three times the volume harvested the use of conventional strategies.
Bhat was once dealing with issues of areca nut harvests because of an unreliable labour team of workers and mistaken repairs of areca nut timber. This additionally resulted in a lack of source of revenue. To resolve this factor, he got here up with the tree scooter, which is helping farmers climb up an areca nut tree in a question of seconds.
The system works with a harness, seat, and seat belt, and operates the use of a small motor and a collection of wheels to take hold of the trunk with out the use of their arms. Bhat states that the system saves about Rs 24,000 a week in labour prices. He has offered loads of units thus far.
2. Wasteland farming innovation
Haresh Thacker’s farm in Kutch blooms with fruit orchards of dragon fruit, mangoes, pomegranates and several other hundred greens. The enterprising third-generation farmer sells his produce beneath the identify Ashapura Agro End result.
Spending all his loose time at the farm since he was once 14, Haresh labored with a imaginative and prescient of establishing a farming empire within the dry, arid Gujarat area. Since he couldn’t exchange the local weather, he discovered leading edge techniques to develop vegatables and fruits hitherto unprecedented within the farms of Kutch.
These days, he makes use of a Vietnam-based farming strategy to develop dragon fruit and a high-density fruit tree planting strategy to develop mangoes, which in most cases want as much as 100 litres of water consistent with day. He selected the dragon fruit because it calls for much less water and will thrive in arid spaces, but even so being a low-calorie fruit. Thru relentless experimentation, he now grows the dragon culmination in 50 acres.
Harsh additionally grows low season strawberries and broccoli the use of the fan and pad generation to keep an eye on the local weather. He additionally makes use of an automatic drip irrigation gadget and practises natural farming.
3. Maintaining agricultural heritage
Mahan Chandra Borah, a rice farmer, sought after to coach other folks, particularly the more youthful technology, about India’s wealthy range in rice and different vegetation. Surprised via the extinction of many indigenous sorts, he began ‘Annapurna Rice Library’ to give protection to the vanishing legacy of his forefathers.
When he began farming, he researched and grew other indigenous forms of rice in his box in Assam’s Jorhat. Since he couldn’t do a PhD, because of monetary constraints, he spent all his time researching and in search of papers on seed saving and rice sorts going extinct.
First, he arrange a rice library at house, sooner than putting in place Annapurna, which has over 500 varieties of seeds preserved and grown organically. Farmers can talk over with the library and take any seeds they would like. He runs all of it on his personal finances and conducts consciousness categories in colleges.
If you happen to discovered his paintings fascinating, Mahan is these days in quest of finances and volunteers for his library. You’ll be able to achieve him at 91270 69446.
4. Sustainable post-harvest preservation
Vaibhav Tidke, a farmer’s son was once moved via the post-harvest lack of vegatables and fruits, which he says is as regards to 60 million tonnes.
The engineer evolved a sun dryer the use of a patented meals drying generation to increase the shelf lifetime of produce with out including chemical substances and preservatives. No longer just for vegatables and fruits, this dryer will also be used for meats, seafood and spices, and has been put in in additional than 1,200 puts in India.
The sun dryer consumes much less power than common dryers and refrigeration units, and assists in keeping carbon footprint to a minimal. He sells this product along side others thru his mission, Science4Society (S4S) Applied sciences.
5. Shelf existence enhancement
Haryana-based Sumer Singh began farming in 1999, the use of chemical fertilisers. When his circle of relatives’s and land’s well being deteriorated, he made the transfer to natural farming, virtually 8 years in the past.
Now, he no longer handiest grows greens, pulses, chickpeas and millets on his 14-acre farm but additionally motivates different farmers to do the similar.
Singh got to work on expanding the shelf lifetime of his produce thru leading edge strategies. For example, he makes use of stubble for mulching at the land the place he grows onions, which assists in keeping the soil wet for longer, harvesting 80 quintals of onion from one acre.
He hangs the onions in bundles like one hangs bananas as a substitute of storing them in stacks, which restricts spoilage. This additionally assists in keeping them secure for 3 to 4 months. Identical inventions are adopted for every crop to extend their shelf-life naturally.
6. Biofertiliser for enhanced yield
Akshay Shrivastav noticed his father, a farmer in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, face a large number of problems, together with deficient yield and dangerous soil high quality, because of over the top use of chemical fertilisers.
He took up chemical engineering to discover a method to fortify agricultural yield. The 24-year-old then created a biofertiliser that, in keeping with him, can assist building up agricultural productiveness via 35 %, serving to over 3,000 farmers throughout India.
The biofertiliser has 60 varieties of microbes which is able to reinforce vitamins within the soil. He additionally evolved a granule that will increase crop yield and decreases irrigation wishes via greater than 30 %.
He began promoting this biofertiliser beneath the emblem identify ‘Navyakosh’ thru his startup ‘LCB Fertilisers’ in March 2021.
7. Water-efficient irrigation
Because of a loss of correct irrigation tactics, farmers waste gallons of water in paddy fields. Malesh T from Mandya, Karnataka, watched his grandfather and different farmers use extra water than required, resulting in flooded farms and fungal illnesses.
To assist such farmers measure the water requirement of vegetation sitting at house, he introduced an agri-tech platform ‘CultYvate’. The generation is helping them perceive when to offer irrigation so the crop isn’t submerged in water at all times.
He says that he’s chopping down 40 % of water use in farms thru his platform and lengthening their yield. “Our generation is helping farmers analyse the dynamic climatic prerequisites and plan their farm cultivation,” says Malesh.
Edited via Pranita Bhat