Motorcycle Made to do Many things

Following is an extract/abstract from an article in Hindu dated February 11 2010. I got the link through my linkedin updates from Venkat.
Mr. Mansukhbhai Jagani an ordinary, not well educated farmer (a school dropout), in Mota Devaliya village, Amreli district, in Gujarat developed a machine system called Bullet Santi for small farm holdings, with attachments for tilling, sowing, inter-culturing and spraying. The motorcycle’s engine was converted to a 5.5 HP diesel engine and the rear wheel replaced with an attachment with two wheels.
Several farmers in the district have caught on to the idea, and there are now close to 40 Santis in the district. It costs between Rs. 14,000-18,000, making it much cheaper than other mechanical ploughs and it performs several functions such as weeding, ploughing and sowing for an acre. The bullet tractor ploughs an acre of land in just half an hour with only two litres of diesel.
With the help of National Innovation Foundation (NIF), Ahmedabad, Mr. Jagani got a patent in India and in the U.S. for this device. Mr. Jagani’s innovation was also displayed at the Indian Science Congress at Pune and at the Swadeshi Vigyan Mela at IIT, Delhi where he got an excellent response. He also got the opportunity to display his innovation in South Africa in an exhibition organized by the Department of Small, Medium & Micro Enterprises (SMME) of the Northern Provinces jointly with Commonwealth Science Council (CSC), London.

Farmers Innovate - Paddy Thresher (My News)

Mr. Mohammed Fazlul Haque from Assam developed a paddy thresher that does not cut the paddy chaff into bits and pieces but throws them out whole. According to Mr. Fazlul, by using his machine the whole paddy stalk can be obtained instead of chopped pieces. The nutritional value is conserved in the whole stalk and fed to cattle or sold.

The machine, fitted with a spike tooth cylinder, and semi cylindrical concave can be adjusted by changing the length of each spike.There is no sieve or shaker and the grains fall directly from the concave gap and are cleaned by the blower just below the concave.

Till date Mr. Fazlul has sold more than 75 machines in different parts of the state. He delivers the machines based on order in a week's time.

The unit priced at Rs. 35,000 (excluding prime mover and cost of transportation) was exhibited the Rashtrapati Bhavan recently at the grassroot innovation exhibition organised by National Innovation Foundation (NIF) India, which is also supporting him under the Micro Venture Innovation Fund.

Excerpt from Indigenous paddy thresher may address labour shortage crisis by M. J. Prabu

Contact Address: Mr. Md. Fazlul Haque, Moirabari village, Morigaon district, Assam-782126, Mobile: 98648 67012.

Farmers Innovate - Cycle Dante (My News)

Kotamla Krishna, a farmer hailing from Yeddumylaram village in Medak district invented a rotary weeder.

Finding farm labour has become a Herculean task after implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). This had an adverse impact on Krishna's work to tend to his vegetable farm. Even clearing weed over an acre of land daily was costing him about Rs. 2,000.

He saw a model of a plough at a Rythu Sadassu in Zaheerabad and he came up with his innovation—the ‘cycle dante'.

The model features a triangular plate fixed on the sides of a cycle rim. A dante or a plough-like instrument is fixed to it.
Excerpt from Ryot creates ‘cycle dante' by R. Avadhani