New tech in agro: low cost, max output-Ahmedabad-Cities-The Times of India

AHMEDABAD: First, they reinvented the bullet to create a popular contraption called chhakda. Now, we have a farmer from Saurashtra, who improvised this cruiser bike to plough, sow and weed fields! Called ‘Bullet Santi’ (bullet plough), for farmers this is like the Nano car. It costs less than a mini tractor. The maintenance cost is lower than keeping a pair of bullocks.

Mansukhbhai Jagani of Mota Devaliya village had a close look at the Enfield Bullet, a petrol driven motorbike, in Amreli in 1994.

He envisioned it as a machine that could help farmers with their chores. He first converted it into a diesel driven 5.5 horsepower engine bike.

Later, he attached a plough behind that could also sow and weed fields. The attachment also turns into a trailer to carry goods. Over 500 farmers in Saurashtra alone use the machine, according to estimates.

"Bullet Santi is popular. Small and marginal farmers cannot afford bullocks or mini tractors. On half a litre of diesel, this machine cultivates one bigha of land," says Jagani. He says that many blacksmiths in Saurashtra copied this model.

They fabricated it in their shops out of second-hand Bullets to meet the demand. A second hand Bullet costs only Rs 25,000. Converted into a plough, it costs Rs 50,000, which is far less than the cost of a mini tractor which is Rs 1.80 lakh.

Recently, the Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI), Durgapur adopted it as a project for design validation and subsequent value addition under the CSIR-NIF Innovation Fellowship Scheme. The CMERI project team included Palash Maji, scientist, principal project leader and Subrata Kumar Mondal, scientist, project leader. Co-ordinator of this project S Sen Sharma told TOI from Durgapur.

"In the original design by Jagani, the rear wheel, sprocket, chain, suspension system, brake system and related links and the rear footrest had to be removed. All these operations required at least two hours for fitting or removal of the attachment, by an automobile mechanic.

We simply attached the plough to the prime mover with minimum difficulty without removing these systems, which takes only about 20 minutes for an average unskilled farmer."This also reduced the length of the vehicle which enables the plough to be used on smaller plots of land.

The new prototype will be put up for trial soon. National innovation foundation’s executive vice chairperson and professor of Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) Anil Gupta says, "This the best example of how grassroots innovation can reach all who need it with help of scientists."