This teen from Suryapet makes low cost tools to lessen drudgery for farmers

Ashok has so far created eight farm tools that ease the drudgery for farmers, all of them low cost products made using commonly available items.

Hyderabad: Innovation has been the mantra driving the Telangana State Innovation Cell, with its efforts now finding embodiment in the form of 19-year-old Ashok Gorre from Anjalipuram village of Suryapet district.

Ashok, who was discovered by the TSIC through its ‘Intinti Innovator’ programme, has so far created eight farm tools that ease the drudgery for farmers, all of them low cost products made using commonly available items. Some of them were even made by upcycling scrap into farm tools.

Once Ashok was scouted through the ‘Intinti Innovator’  programme, which finds and supports grassroot level innovators and is based on the concept that problems in a particular location can be better addressed by locals, TSIC validated Ashok’s idea.

One of the 12 rural innovators who received a Prototype Grant under the Telangana State Innovations with Rural Impact (TSIRI) incentives, Ashok got Rs 1 lakh in April this year, after which TSIC helped him become a fellow of the State-supported prototyping facility T-Works.

Under T-Works’ Rural Innovation Development Programme, which focuses on nurturing innovations from rural areas, Ashok got support to build a seed sowing tool that allows farmers to sow seeds without bending. As a result, the exertion associated with sowing is reduced. It also saves labour as just one person can manage to do the sowing work which otherwise would have needed four people. In the process, the farmers also save on labour for three additional workers.

“My focus is on using commonly available items to make farm tools. Hailing from a farming background, I understand the struggle of farmers and also the need to cut expenses as far as possible,” he said about the tool, which resembles a walking stick with a pointed edge to drill holes in the ground. The other end has a funnel to put seeds in while the tool is operated by a lever. All this at a cost of just about Rs 850.

Ashok, who has got orders from about 50 farmers from the neighbouring areas, is quite busy even while pursuing graduation through distance education mode.

“I plan to set up my own company at a later stage,” said Ashok, crediting his efforts to the encouragement of his parents Gorre Nagaraju and Savitri.

Palle Srujana, a voluntary organisation that works with rural innovations in Telangana and AP, also supported him, he said.

Ashok’s efforts also include creation of a multi-purpose hand tool for gathering paddy grains, seed bed preparation, weeding and gathering dry paddy grass. A bicycle wheel aids in its movement and a scoop attached at one end helps in collecting grains and grass. He has also created an engine-operated drum seeder for paddy fields, to be used for sowing germinated paddy seed directly in wetland fields. The tool is particularly suited for blacksoil, he said.

Ashok is not resting on his laurels yet. “Giving shape to ideas is neither easy nor cheap. It costs money, time, resources and requires skill,” he said, adding that his parents many times asked him to focus on studies due to their fragile financial condition.

He earlier worked with a farm inputs company but quit that to pursue making low cost farm tools for fellow farmers. He has also worked on a tool to help the hearing impaired.