Marrying technology with tradition

Here is a union between tradition and technology that could help small and marginal farmers to save on electricity and fossil fuels. Powered by bullocks, the home grown solution could be used to meet energy requirement for agri processes such as ploughing, irrigating, foodgrain processing, producing manure and as a substitute for domestic fuel. Even cottage industries could use it for their production. Promoted by Bioved Research Institute of Agriculture and Technology (BRIAT) in Allahabad, it consists of a low priced animal driven prime mover locally known as the bullock-driven gearbox and bullock-driven generator. This along with the animal generates energy for agri processes. Dr BK Dwivedi, Director at the institute, says that the attempt was to use livestock available in the rural scenario to help farmers to generate energy for their small needs.

Explaining the technology, he says with the help of bullocks rotating around the prime mover contraption (they could be substituted with camels or donkeys as well) 25,000 litres of water is pumped per hour and generates about 0.5 to 1.0 kw of electricity per hour. BRIAT explains the logic calculating on the basis of utilising the animal for 300 days in the year. “A pair of bullocks on an average would produce 4-5 kw electric energy per day. There are about 80 million bullocks in the country and thus 160-200 million units of equivalent electric energy can be produced. Taking the cost of energy at ₹4 per unit, the national earning would be ₹64-80 crore per day and thus ₹19,200-42,800 crore per year.”

Dwivedi feels that introducing relevant technology in the rural landscape will also help youth from migrating to the cities. “Villages are becoming old age homes and people have stopped keeping bullocks as they are only used for three months in the year for ploughing. If livestock is deployed the year round, we could encourage cottage industry, produce wealth from waste like green manure and biogas and live in a sustainable environment.”

But BRIAT has not had much luck with promoting their technology as small farmers need subsidy to be able to afford the fabricated prime mover device that is attached to livestock. “Ten to 15 farmers are using it today and are happy with it. Ideally, there should be a government based pilot project that helps assess its efficacy and promotes the product,” says the Director.

COMMENT NOW