JOIN USMela highlights unique products to help farmers
Krishi Mela, the annual farming expo now on in Bengaluru, features many innovations.
The University of Agricultural Sciences is hosting the four-day mela at the Gandhi Krishi Vijnana Kendra campus, Hebbal. The mela ends on Monday, November 18.
The mela showcases many products to help farmers. The hybrid windmill, designed by Maruthi Krishi Udyog, Nelmangala is one such: it can address the power outage problem in villages.
Departments within the university presented their inventions to a crowd of farmers and curious city-dwellers.
Farmers can sign up for a weather alert service: twice a week, they get forecasts. This is an initiative by a department.
Soil-testing units, also on display, help farmers decide what to plant. Some stalls provide details about weed management, bio-fertilisers and mushroom cultivation.
The department of food science and nutrition, presented a food item for diabetics and obese people living in rural areas. The mix contains pulses and cereals and no chemicals.
“Rural diabetics cannot afford the expensive products available in the urban market. Farmers can make this mix on their own and it is cost-effective,” says the head of the department.
The department of Agronomy has designed a mobile phone-operated solar hooter.
“There’s a SIM inside the machine. Just a call will get the hooter going and scare the birds away. This is something any farmer can make by himself,” says the assistant professor at the department.
A solar fertiliser sprinkler on display reduces manual work and eases the work of farmers.
An integrated farming model showed how poultry, fishery, and farming could go together.
“Fish can be fed the residuary material from farms, such as leaves and stalks. Additionally, plankton, which is a major fish feed, can be grown using manure provided by livestock raised along the fish farms. Silk worms can also be raised simultaneously,” he adds.
Art too
The mela also features performances by folk artistes from across the state.
Get there
If you go from the Windsor Manor side, GKVK is on your left just after the Hebbal flyover.
On display
- Hybrid windmill: Can generate power
- Mobile hooter: Can remotely scare birds away
- Diet beverage for diabetics and obese people
- Twice-a-week mobile weather forecast service