Mission Impossible: Saving our farmers from the Ghost Protocol?

“Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to save the dying farmers of India. This country will otherwise self-destruct in 5 seconds”, is probably what the glasses would tell every Indian if he wore it and chose to see the plight of our farmers. Unfortunately, most of us do what Ethan Hunt does immediately, that is

but not what Ethan Hunt does eventually, like

Which is why we still hear cases of farmers preferring the ghost world, and committing suicides, right? You and I, just like 1.1999999 billion Indians may think we’re incapable, but there will always be those 0.0000001 billion Indians that will still believe in a miracle. And half of those will actually set out and make those miracles a reality. So what if you can’t get down and dirty in the fields yourself? There is no paucity of brilliant minds in our country that has the ability to create tech marvels which strive to improve the quality of life our farmers. Here are 5 such wonders our farmers can only bless the creators for –

• Bullet Santhi

How many of you remember this notoriously irritating song about fusing pens and apples, which did the rounds in 2016? If it was up to Mansukh Jagani, he would probably go like “I have a Bullet. I have a tractor. Uhh! Bullet Santi!” Because that’s precisely what he did. Forced to live in abject poverty and unable to complete even primary education, he came up with an innovation that will be studied about for decades in all the premiere IIT’s of the country. All he did was fuse a Royal Enfield (Bullet, as we lovingly call it), and a tractor. The result?

This simple but marvelous piece of technology has ensured farmers are able to get much more yield than they could afford to, in the absence of tractors. It provides all services a rich farmer could avail using expensive methods, such as sowing, plowing, trazing, kneading, etc. at a fraction of that cost. One of the biggest reasons for farmer suicides is their inability to repay debt. The Bullet Santi is a cure for just that. Farmers would no longer need to sell their blood and bones to buy and take care of tractors and bullocks. This low-cost technology, assembled within Rs. 50,000/-, promises to make life a lot easier for farmers. At least monetarily.

While it does pose a unique solution, it still needs some time to enter mass production, considering the mastermind behind it is still in search of adequate funding. You can check out more of the Bullet Santi’s features at SristiInnovation. He needs your support for sure!

• MITRA

No, this is not some new chant adopted by Mr. Modi. (It’s still Mitroooooon…). MITRA is an acronym for Machines, Information, Technology, Resources for Agriculture. It is a Nashik based Startup that has come up with various machines to solve every issue plaguing our farmers, one at a time. These machines include harvesters, sprayers, dusters, etc.

The technology is brilliant – they are 30% cheaper than sprayers available in other parts of the world and takes less than an hour for an activity that would otherwise require a man force of 10 to 12 farmers working all day doing it manually. However, their service does not stop at simply providing machines to farmers. They also provide a variety of follow-up and after-sales services so that the tech can be used as effectively as the makers intended it to be.

• Skymet

A farmer can do everything correctly, use all the correct tools, but when the weather Gods have decided to play truant, no one really stands much of a chance, do they? Skymet tries to be the truce between God and the mere mortal farmers. While controlling the environment as per our whims and fancies is still a fantasy best left for a Christopher Nolan or Bryan Singer to encapsulate in his movies, the most we can do on our part is predict, prepare and prevent. Skymet’s technologies aspire to accomplish the same.

Skymet provides dozens of instruments such as Automatic Weather Stations, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s), Lightning sensors, soil moisture and temperature sensors, ceilometers, etc that quantify and analyse data related to various aspects of farming and inform the farmer if any adverse scenario is likely to arise or if the conditions are suited to sowing or not. It has a network of over 3500 stations over 20 states and is inarguably India’s biggest technology provider for the food-providers of the nation.

• Aquaponics

Aquaponics is not so much as a brilliant technology, as it is a brilliant technique. But that’s an opinion for later. First, let’s see the whats-what of it. As simply put by TheAquaponicSource – “The most simple definition of Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics (the soil-less growing of plants) that grows fish and plants together in one integrated system.” Wait, our schools taught us that farming and fishing are 2 different jobs, didn’t they? How can both be carried out together? That’s the precise beauty of the technique!

The waste of fish acts as a nutrient source for the crops to grow, and vice versa. Check out this video by AquaponicsIndia, the pioneers of the latest agro-revolution in the nation

The benefits to farmers are immense. It uses less than a fifth of the water used by traditional farming techniques, can increase output by 4-5 times the average previously, saves a lot of time and money wasted by farmers on chemical fertilizers that ultimately harm the soil, as also ensuring continuous production, even in the off-season. The only costs associated are the one-time installation costs which might be high initially, but the profit generated by the excess output more than covers up for it over time. Need for sustainable development, anyone?

• CropIn

What’s a singer if his/her songs are never heard by anyone? What’s an author if his/her books never reached the shelves? Similarly, what’s a farmer whose produce never hit the market? CropIn seeks to address just that issue – the inability of farmers to get value for their sweat.

To cut a long story short, CropIn uses technology tools such as geo-tagging to monitor crop development, and when they’re ready for harvesting and consumption, it links buyer (food companies/wholesalers/industrial managers etc.) to the seller (the farmer) in quick time to ensure ready supply of worthy money to the farmer and raw material to the industry. Both can connect to each other using internet-based apps and web. Additionally, the Bangalore based startup also stores and transmits important farm-related data and records, as also managing the shipment of the goods. In short, it is a one-stop logistics-supply chain technological solution for our farmers as well as the people directly dependent on them.

Do you still think India is a “Rogue Nation”? Or have you begun Hunting for hope? Only time will tell whether our farmers will one day Cruise around joyfully in their tractors. Till then, they hang on for their dear lives, supported only by the rope called technology. Like,