Agriculture

National Innovation Foundation

The National Innovation Foundation (NIF) - India was set up in March 2000 with the assistance of Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. It is India's national initiative to strengthen the grassroots technological innovations and outstanding traditional knowledge. Its mission is to help India become a creative and knowledge-based society by expanding policy and institutional space for grassroots technological innovators.

Innovation portal 

This portal is an initiative of the NIF to bring into the public domain the database of technological ideas, innovations and herbal knowledge available with it. These innovations pertain to various domains such as agricultural machinery, household gadgets, energy, transport, electronics, and communication, general utility, plant varieties, herbal plant protection practices, herbal veterinary practices, among others.

To visit the portal, click here.

Cotton Stripper Machine

Inventor : Shri Mansukhbhai Patel, Ahmedabad, Gujarat

1. Extremely efficient & effective machine to separate the seed cotton from the shells
2. Saves cost involved in manual labour and reduces drudgery of women & children
3. It can also be used as Cotton pre cleaner in ginning mills. It useful for removing pre-matured cotton balls, stones, and various other impurities from raw cotton.
4. Improves the quality of cotton and thereby improves ginning performance.
5. Staple cutting has been completely eliminated

For more information, click here. 

A new innovation to tackle rodent menace

Rats pose a major challenge to agriculture, especially after the monsoon season.

Other options tried by farmers for rodent management

• Farmers mix rodenticide and millet flour inside a plastic cover and throw it on the tree top. The rats die after eating this mixture. But during monsoon the poison bait does not prove effective.
• Farmers mix a powder of fried groundnut, sesamum, coriander seeds and a rodenticide in a cloth bundle and keep it on the tree tops. But this method proved dangerous as birds that consumed the poisoned rats also died.
• Farmers engage professional trappers, but they are costly, as the persons charge between Rs.25-30 to catch one rodent.

About the innovative trap

Mr. Arun Kumar from Tumkur district, Karnataka, has designed an eco-friendly trap for the pest. The trap has a binding wire that is tied to the four corners of an old bamboo basket and connected to a single plastic thread. The plastic thread is attached to a coconut frond that can be pulled up or down. A snap trap is placed inside the bamboo basket and a chopped coconut kernel piece attached to it.
The rats get attracted to the coconut piece and get killed inside the trap.
The dead rats are manually removed and buried in the soil. By this method about 3-4 rats can be trapped and killed. But it does not provide a permanent solution, because the dead rats release certain pheromones from their body which serve as an alarm for others not to enter the area again, and move away to other areas.
The trap designed by Mr. Kumar costs about Rs. 30-35 per trap.

Source : The Hindu