| Details of Innovation |
Sprayers play a very important role in agricultural operations. Today, most of the sprayers available in the market are of 16-lt. capacity, have metal bodies and are highly priced. These sprayers are not suited to farmers with small holdings, as the sprayer capacity is not fully utilized. Some 16-litre plastic sprayers are also available but are cumbersome and heavy. The imported category does have small sprayers but they come at a high price.
For treating their crop, the small farmers usually borrow sprayers from the large farmers and from retailers of agricultural equipment. When there is a shortage of sprayers, a premium is usually charged. Also, spraying a small holding with large sprayers leads to wastage.
Khimji Bhai Kanadia, after observing these problems, began working on a small mist sprayer that could reduce wastage of the pesticide. The resulting spray would be very fine, so would not affect the plant. He also thought of designing a side-mounting sprayer with a 5-lt. capacity. This sprayer was designed almost 18 years back to cater to the requirements of small and marginal farmers. He prepared a die of the tank from his pooled resources and manufactured almost 200 pumps. He sold these pumps in nearby villages. Some of the pumps, manufactured almost 18 years back are still in use. Unfortunately, when the die broke, Khimjibhai did not have resources to get a new one. He had to abandon his manufacturing activity and revert to farming.
In 1997, Khimjibhais talent was discovered by SRISTI and he was encouraged to restart his project. GIAN arranged financial aid of Rs. 80,000 from the Technopreneur Promotion Programme of DSIR and design inputs from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. To initiate large-scale production, GIAN also arranged a soft loan of Rs. 2,20,000 from Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council. The sprayer was relaunched in the market in 1999. About 300 sprayers are manufactured per month.The marketing strategy of the Kushal Sprayer has been designed by a group of students of IIMA . |
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