The Hindu Business Line : Ideas from life

A severe water crisis in Sadalga village, located in Karnataka’s Belgaum district, drove sugarcane farmer Anna Saheb to develop a low-cost drip irrigation system. He continued to improvise and soon the design metamorphosed into the Varsha Rain Gun, a sprinkler with a capacity to irrigate one acre in 90 minutes, resulting in 50 per cent saving on water and 10 per cent increase in yield.

At Bathalagundu in Dindugal district, Tamil Nadu, banana farmers helplessly watched their crops being destroyed by pest attacks. One farmer approached Manoharan, an engineer with a deep interest in grassroots innovation, with the idea of developing a stem injector. Manoharan developed the compact Banana Stem Injector, which is now being used successfully across the State.

Indeed, innovators in rural India have what it takes to create products that can solve problems in areas like water, agriculture, dairy and energy as they have a sound understanding of local needs and think creatively, says Paul Basil, Founder, Rural Innovations Network (RIN). RIN works to tap this inventiveness of farmers and entrepreneurs, with a focus on those who lack access to technology, funding and markets. It believes that creating wealth through need-based products or services can bring prosperity into rural households.

As an incubator, RIN involves itself in the entire cycle, from looking for innovators, conducting preliminary assessment and refining the technology to writing business models. As Basil explains, “These grassroots innovators are reasonably good in technical aspects but weak in marketing. We think: Can we help these ‘informal innovators’ unleash their creativity for the benefit of society?”

Since its inception in 2001, RIN has identified about 2,000 inventions. Of these, 20 ideas have been worked on to create ready-to-market products; it usually takes about three to four years to get a product ready for the market. The list includes a range of products, from a burner to increase fuel efficiency in kerosene stoves and a device to trap insects in grain containers to low-cost, hygienic milking machines and products to improve soil texture.

Rewarding innovation

At the Lemelson Recognition and Mentoring Programme (L-RAMP) innovation awards held recently at IIT-Madras, many of these innovators received awards from former President APJ Abdul Kalam. Stating that the inventors were fine examples of how everyone can find solutions through creative thinking, Kalam urged banks to come forward to support them.

While acknowledging that government spending in rural research had resulted in positive results such as high-yielding seeds, intensive systems, and greater irrigation area, Basil points to the huge disconnect between the objective of R&D and the needs of people. “Crores and crores are spent researching rural needs and numerous tools have been made but so many of these ‘solutions’ are lying around in the workshops. What is their use?” he says.

Pointing to the pictures of farmers and entrepreneurs with their inventions that line the wall at his Chennai office, Basil says, “They have faced necessity of a certain kind in their geographical area and sectors of work, and therefore the trigger to develop a solution. It’s crucial that the farmer is consulted. There’s seldom such connect between scientists and user groups, and that needs to change.”

In keeping with its credo of engaging with the end-users, RIN hopes to fine-tune and scale up its last mile of operations through its Samruddhi retail stores.

The stores are intended to give rural people access to innovative products, bypassing marketing channels that are primarily driven by margins. Stocking products ranging from seeds, pesticides and fertilisers to farm tools and machines, each shop will cater to about 200 farmers. RIN currently has two outlets at Gobichettypalayam in Tamil Nadu; it plans 10 shops and four franchisees by 2008.

On offer

Some of the innovative products on offer include Oorja stoves that reduce carbon emission, battery-operated sprayers, nutritional product for plants and low-cost sanitary napkins among others.

“Currently there are no financial resources for SMEs to create a brand of their own. Samruddhi will give them a platform to reach out. The challenge is in distribution and tackling margin wars,” says Basil, a mechanical engineer and management postgraduate from the Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal.

Through programmes such as the Business Plan Competition, RIN gives small-scale entrepreneurs an opportunity to display their products. The ‘My Idea Programme’ mentors student ideas. These programmes have helped nurture ideas such as cotton spinning yarn, solar collectors, banana powder and a device for extracting pepper oil.

The ‘Innovation to Market Programme’ works with partners who have a presence in rural India to increase the reach of an innovation; the Srishti project assists innovators with inputs for design, engineering and field trials.

Basil looks forward to a flow of more creative ideas and more products and services, which, in turn, will result in more wealth trickling into rural India.

Rural Innovations Network can be contacted at #9, 2nd Floor, Kanakasri Nagar, Cathedral Road, Chennai 600 086. (044)28112108/ 4210 5447. Email: info@rinovations.org.

Web Site: www.rinovations.org

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Ideas from life

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