New machines to ease workload

It is priced at Rs.3,500

January 22, 2015 12:16 am | Updated June 27, 2015 04:25 pm IST

The Research and Development wing of Mannuthy Agricultural Research Station under Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) has come up with modified version of sit and climb coconut climber and tiller to open basin around coconut trees.

The new version is cheaper, lighter, quicker and easy to operate and much more comfortable. It takes only five seconds to fasten it to a tree and same time to detach it.

Modified version

Ascending and descending a 12 metre high palm can be done within 78 second. The modified machine is fastened to the tree using flexible steel rope instead of curved stainless rod used in previous machine.

A cycle seat, a handle to hold on, adjustable loop according to changes in girth of tree, during operation, are added advantages

It is priced at Rs.3,500 against the older version costing of Rs.8,500. The R &D department has also developed a tiller which can till the soil and open up basin of 15 to 25 cm depth with 60 cm width are made around the coconut trees to spread farm manure.

It takes 10 minutes for the tiller to open a basin and it can open six basins per hour consuming 1.5 liters of diesel. The cost including other lubrications and operation is Rs. 200 per hour. This means the cost of opening a basin of coconut will be only Rs.40.

Cost

Usually a worker opens up 12-15 basins a day around trees which costs Rs 50-60 per tree.

More importantly the number of basins dug per day is manifold.

The station is also working for the tillers which can work with the help of remote control so that walk behind the tiller for operating it becomes no more practice.

Farmers can book the machine by paying the cost either in cash or through DD.

(Dr. U.Jaikumaran, Prof&Head, ARS, Mannuthy, phone: 0487 2370726, mobile: 9447530673, email:arsmannuthy@kau.in)

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.