Rising up on a farm exposes youngsters to the completely different challenges of agriculture. Whereas some may draw back from these points, others see them as issues to unravel. The latter develop as much as change into innovators, addressing issues by discovering new options that improve effectivity and sustainability in agriculture — from specializing in bettering crop yield and conserving water to embracing natural farming. 

Here’s a record of seven such farmers whose revolutionary options are altering 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 palms. This has helped farmers cut back dependence on labourers and harvest 300 areca palms in a day, which is thrice the quantity harvested utilizing conventional strategies.

Bhat was going through issues with areca nut harvests because of an unreliable labour workforce and improper upkeep of areca nut bushes. This additionally led to a lack of earnings. To unravel this concern, he got here up with the tree scooter, which helps farmers climb up an areca nut tree in a matter of seconds.

The machine works with a harness, seat, and seat belt, and operates utilizing a small motor and a set of wheels to know the trunk with out utilizing their arms. Bhat states that the machine saves about Rs 24,000 per week in labour prices. He has bought a whole bunch of gadgets up to now.

2. Desert farming innovation

Haresh Thacker’s farm in Kutch blooms with fruit orchards of dragon fruit, mangoes, pomegranates and a number of other hundred greens. The enterprising third-generation farmer sells his produce below the identify Ashapura Agro Fruits.

Spending all his free time on the farm since he was 14, Haresh labored with a imaginative and prescient of constructing a farming empire within the dry, arid Gujarat area. Since he couldn’t change the local weather, he discovered revolutionary methods to develop vegatables and fruits hitherto unprecedented within the farms of Kutch.

At present, he makes use of a Vietnam-based farming approach to develop dragon fruit and a high-density fruit tree planting technique to develop mangoes, which often want as much as 100 litres of water per day. He selected the dragon fruit because it requires much less water and might thrive in arid areas, in addition to being a low-calorie fruit. By relentless experimentation, he now grows the dragon fruits in 50 acres.

Harsh additionally grows low season strawberries and broccoli utilizing the fan and pad expertise to regulate the local weather. He additionally makes use of an automatic drip irrigation system and practises natural farming.

3. Preserving agricultural heritage

Mahan Chandra Borah, a rice farmer, needed to teach individuals, particularly the youthful technology, about India’s wealthy variety in rice and different crops. Shocked by the extinction of many indigenous varieties, he began ‘Annapurna Rice Library’ to guard the vanishing legacy of his forefathers.

When he began farming, he researched and grew completely different indigenous sorts of rice in his subject in Assam’s Jorhat. Since he couldn’t do a PhD, because of monetary constraints, he spent all his time researching and on the lookout for papers on seed saving and rice varieties going extinct.

First, he arrange a rice library at house, earlier than establishing Annapurna, which has over 500 varieties of seeds preserved and grown organically. Farmers can go to the library and take any seeds they need. He runs all of it on his personal funds and conducts consciousness courses in colleges.

When you discovered his work attention-grabbing, Mahan is presently looking for funds and volunteers for his library. You’ll be able to attain him at 91270 69446.

4. Sustainable post-harvest preservation

Vaibhav Tidke, a farmer’s son was moved by the post-harvest lack of vegatables and fruits, which he says is near 60 million tonnes.

The engineer developed a photo voltaic dryer utilizing a patented meals drying expertise to increase the shelf lifetime of produce with out including chemical compounds and preservatives. Not just for vegatables and fruits, this dryer may also be used for meats, seafood and spices, and has been put in in additional than 1,200 locations in India.

The photo voltaic dryer consumes much less power than common dryers and refrigeration gadgets, and retains carbon footprint to a minimal. He sells this product together with others by his enterprise, Science4Society (S4S) Applied sciences.

5. Shelf life enhancement

Haryana-based Sumer Singh began farming in 1999, utilizing chemical fertilisers. When his household’s and land’s well being deteriorated, he made the swap to natural farming, nearly eight years in the past.

Now, he not solely grows greens, pulses, chickpeas and millets on his 14-acre farm but in addition motivates different farmers to do the identical.

Singh began engaged on growing the shelf lifetime of his produce by revolutionary strategies. As an illustration, he makes use of stubble for mulching on the land the place he grows onions, which retains the soil moist 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 retains them protected for 3 to 4 months. Comparable improvements 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 lots of points, together with poor yield and unhealthy soil high quality, because of extreme use of chemical fertilisers.

He took up chemical engineering to discover a resolution to enhance agricultural yield. The 24-year-old then created a biofertiliser that, in line with him, might help enhance agricultural productiveness by 35 %, serving to over 3,000 farmers throughout India.

The biofertiliser has 60 varieties of microbes which might improve vitamins within the soil. He additionally developed a granule that will increase crop yield and reduces irrigation wants by greater than 30 %.

He began promoting this biofertiliser below the model identify ‘Navyakosh’ by his startup ‘LCB Fertilisers’ in March 2021.

7. Water-efficient irrigation

Because of an absence of correct irrigation methods, 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 crops sitting at house, he launched an agri-tech platform ‘CultYvate’. The expertise helps them perceive when to supply irrigation so the crop shouldn’t be submerged in water on a regular basis.

He says that he’s chopping down 40 % of water use in farms by his platform and growing their yield. “Our expertise helps farmers analyse the dynamic weather conditions and plan their farm cultivation,” says Malesh.

Edited by Pranita Bhat