Innovations galore by Gulbarga farmer

At a time when most farmers are under pressure to safeguard their crop from thefts or attacks from wild animals, this farmer is not all that perturbed. His electric fencing most often does the job for him. If some miscreants cut the fencing wire or disconnect power connection, a siren bell alerts him!

Sharanagowda P Patil, a young farmer of Hal Sulthanpura village in Gulbarga district, is an innovative farmer. He has designed many gadgets which lend a helping hand to farmers in this era of labour shortage and paucity of time. One of the major innovations by him is a low-cost fence.

Many companies have electric fencing in their list of products, but they are too expensive and can’t be afforded by small and marginal farmers. After checking with some companies, Sharanagowda decided to design a cost-effective system. His training as part of the ITI electrician course has helped him a lot. “First I learned the circuit system of fencing and bought the necessary devices. After some efforts, I designed a successful fencing system,” says Sharanagowda. He installed fencing for his 15 acres of land at a cost of Rs 20,000 only. Sharanagowda’s innovation has served as an inspiration for other farmers as well. He has ensured that the system works both on electric and solar power. “This fencing is really effective, ” says farmer Mahalingappa of Saradagi village.

Other innovations

Because of farm labour shortage, the entire agriculture set-up is facing a lot of problems. Most often, there are no labourers available for farm work. Sharanagowda has designed a gadget that helps in water supply. He has grown lemon trees on one acre of land, and this crop requires periodic supply of water. Sharanagowda has designed a gadget that ensures water flow for a specific duration. This costs not more than Rs 1,000. “With this instrument, you can control the duration of water flow and after the specified time, it gets switched off automatically. Now I depend upon this small instrument for my entire irrigation needs,” says Sharanagowda proudly.

Typically, when crops are in the harvesting stage, a lot of birds tend to get attracted to the crops. To protect crops, Sharanagowda has installed sound speakers in different places of the field and has connected a radio to them. This sound keep pests and birds away.

Also, Sharangowda has used the ‘siphon principle’ to draw water from the Bennethora River to his field. “Other farmers use electric or diesel pump sets to get river water. But I don’t use this system. By creating a vacuum in the pipeline, water flows automatically from the river to my well. As soon as I draw water from the well, that much water flows down automatically to the well from the river,” explains Sharanagowda.

He has designed several other gadgets including one to pluck fruit, a weed remover, tap irrigation, pipeline protector, etc. His next aim is to produce electricity from the rotating wheel of a bullock cart!