Shaji Varghese (54) practices farming and cultivates tapioca, banana, and rubber. He started farming to help his father after completing class 10th. He was an average student in school but had keen interest in science and used to participate in scientific exhibitions. He tried his hand in running a hardware shop, but shut it down due to losses. In order to sustain his family, he now owns and operates a poultry farm.

Four years ago (2015), Shaji observed the guava fruits in his garden were being eaten by bats and birds before ripening. This made him think of capping the fruits to protect them. Manual capping was possible only on small trees. This led him to think and develop a fruit capper for tall trees.

This fruit capper is a small tool,which can be used for capping or bagging fruits and vegetables to protect from birds, squirrels and insects.Any kind of cover-plastic, paper, cloth etc. could be used for this purpose. It is useful for fruits and vegetables like guava, cocoas, mangos, grapes, sapota (chikku), passion fruit, bitter gourd, snake gourd, etc. A plastic or paper cover is fixed on the holder with rubber band, the holder is placed around the fruit /vegetable and knob at the bottom is pulled. The pin releases a rubber band along with the cover. The length of the tool can be increased using additional pipe or pole. This tool is made of different sizes of PVC pipes and a lever, pin- knob etc. It costs onlyRs. 350/-.