ICRISAT gets first industrial design grant for solar-powered water hyacinth harvester

The solar-powered equipment, designed and fabricated in-house, is an affordable solution priced at under Rs 2 lakh, making it ideal for rural farming communities that cannot afford sophisticated machinery costing 10 times as much. It offers substantial benefits, including 50 to 60 per cent savings in cost, time, and labour, while prioritising using clean energy.

Sangareddy: The International Crop Research Institute for Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT) was granted its first industrial design in India for a solar-powered water hyacinth harvester developed by a team of scientists. The harvester is simple, affordable, and can be efficiently managed by semi-skilled or unskilled personnel.

The solar-powered equipment, designed and fabricated in-house, is an affordable solution priced at under Rs 2 lakh, making it ideal for rural farming communities that cannot afford sophisticated machinery costing 10 times as much. It offers substantial benefits, including 50 to 60 per cent savings in cost, time, and labour, while prioritising using clean energy.

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Water hyacinth infestations in rural ponds disrupt ecosystems, harm fisheries, and block canals. Their rapid growth and long-lasting seeds make eradication difficult. Just 8 to 10 plants can proliferate into over 6,00,000 plants within 6 to 8 months. Chemical and biological removal of the weed have proved expensive and effective only in the short term. The only way to control the weed sustainably is through periodic harvesting, either manually or mechanically.

Director General-Interim of ICRISAT, Dr Stanford Blade commended the team behind the mechanical harvester, stating that water hyacinth infestation is a global environmental challenge. He said the cost-effective harvester reflects ICRISAT’s dedication to creating environment-friendly solutions tailored to the needs of rural communities that are also technologically and economically sustainable.

ICRISAT’s harvester, categorised as agricultural machinery, was developed as part of the project “Sustainable Valorisation of Water Hyacinth Biomass through Aerobic Composting as a Rural Enterprise—A Waste to Wealth Initiative,” supported by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, Government of Odisha, India.

Dr Aviraj Datta, the project’s principal investigator, led the development of the harvester, supported by ICRISAT staff Dr Mangi Lal Jat, Dr Ramesh Singh, Hari Om Singh, Santhosh Kumar Raja, Yogesh Kumar, and Jinith Mahajhan.