Kochi :

The students of the mechanical engineering department have developed a trenching machine cum tiller which can be used by farmers cultivating banana, tapioca or vegetables. The machine which looks like two hands mowing the soil can be attached to an power tiller for multi-tasking in farming operations.

The tool was developed as a prototype based on the specifications by the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) which was looking for a farm tool to improve the efficiency of the existing tillers where the farmer has to seek assistance of a manual labour to finely dig the hole for planting a sapling.

“We ran the trials last week in front of the officials at the Agricultural Research Station (ARS) at Mannuthy who suggested some modifications and fine-tuning. That will be done fast and we will be ready with a commercial product soon,” said Ashwanth M P, one of the team members of Kinetic Tillers which has been incubated at the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Cell (IEDC) of Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat).

Ashwanth and his friends, Jerish John, Aaron Tom, Lijesh Josy and Edwin Thomas who started work on the project last year developed it with feedback from farmers in Ernakulam when the final prototype was being readied.

Tilling is the most expensive and tedious work in farming and is mostly done manually using conventional tools or various machine powered technologies such as rotary tillers, cultivators, and disc harrows are used for tilling process. The manual process is very time consuming and has become too costly as well. A major limitation faced commonly in the rotary tillers is that soil becomes sticky when mixed with water, hence reducing the aeration (entering of air into the soil) which is harmful for young growing roots. Also, the inappropriate use of tillers leads to soil losing its organic matter affecting its fertility. Cultivators used for tilling at present are bulky in size, requires high power machines include, but are not limited to, tractors for pulling. Also, with the cultivators, depth of the soil to be tilled cannot be controlled, which affects its fertility and increases soil erosion.

“We are setting up a Centre of Excellence in agricultural research and farm mechanization is one of the focus areas. When such a need was discussed at the ARS, we decided to hand over the work to the Cusat students under IEDC. The concept has come out well. We are suggested some changes in blades and depth digging and asked them to get back to us with it,” said Prof U Jayakumar, Director, ARS.

The students however, want to go a step forward. Make it a cost-effective tool which even the middle-level farmer in Kerala can afford. “Right now, the price could cost about Rs 60,000 but we want to bring it further down,” said Ashwanth.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kochi / by Sudha Nambudri, TNN / April 01st, 2015