Low cost portable kiln

The kiln is designed for the potter community in Kanalva and nearby villages who are related to lac coating of earthen pots. Their traditional method had very high fuel consumption, a large number of defective pots output and uncontrolled excess smoke. The aim was to design a system that will improve the productivity of the clay pots without bringing much change in their process and also introduce safety features in it.

Restructured Jadu

There is a need to eradicate this manual practice at earliest and make them self-independent and skilful to live a life of dignity and respect. A thing to note is this that, while consuming goods/products it is an individual’s property, but after consuming it, they don’t care about it at all, why? Also, the minimum wages of any government worker is 500 rupees per day, but they only get 300 rupees per day. According to our observation, they need support of both people and the government, but at the same time, we realized that if any of them improves (either people or the government) then it will help improve other. People should realize the importance and help them because ultimately the system is making them sweep and they are not getting the respect they need, so public involvement is a must. Their happiness is the only motive and motivation for us.

A low cost toilet

Most of the village population do not have access to safe and reliable toilets. A good toilet, together with a safe reliable water supply and the practice of good personal hygiene can do much to improve personal and family health and wellbeing. There is an urgent need for the construction of simple, low cost, affordable toilets that are easy to build and maintain and are relatively free of odours and flies. The compost is useful in the vegetable garden and can also be used for growing trees. The simplest are low cost pit toilets and a builder is not required once the householder has learned how to make it.

A load distribution bag

Problem of traditional cotton picking and were determined to make a product which increases the efficiency of labourers and also reduces the problems faced thereof. As we delved further, we realised that carrying heavy bags of cotton (10-20 kg while picking) by the traditional method is as big a problem as is cotton picking done by hands at present. We decided to work on cotton carrying only after studying all the stages of cotton growth in as much detail as we could and found it to be the most interesting and challenging one. Thus, we ended up making a load distribution bag which distributes weight throughout the body. The same product can be used for vegetable picking and its use can further be extended to any and every type of farming.

A network team at rann of kutch

We focused on solving the network issues that most highly remote areas faced. Network issues like a dead network region at places where people had the means to use it but the network couldn’t reach them. This issue was quite an important one because it prevented people from accessing resources that were openly available to others on the network. And moreover, in case of an emergency it became quite difficult to quickly relay messages over. Our team wanted these people to establish a contact with the outside world any time they wanted, to at least get help during emergencies. We were given a chance to analyses the salt farmers of the Little Rann of Kutch.

Upon analyzing the problem and visiting the insides of the Little Rann of Kutch ourselves we realized that gaining access to a cellular network was not difficult. People with phones could easily use them to contact people in the Rann during emergencies. But we realized that it was difficult to gain access to high speed internet in the Rann of Kutch.

Prevention of unintentional exposure to toxic gases in the wells

Toxic gases are formed inside farm wells, sceptic tanks, chick farms due to prevalence of anaerobic conditions and decomposition of organic matters. Common sites for toxic gases are farm well, septic tanks, sewers and natural gas operations.  Majority of exposures are unintentional. Exposure leads to convulsions, coma and rapid loss of consciousness. Studies across globe have shown that poisoning with toxic gases cause blockade of oxidative phosphorylation during electron transport chain and inhibit various bio-enzymatic processes in our body. These gases rapidly distribute to vital organs like liver, lungs and brain. Later two are very prone to damage due to toxic exposure and gases like hydrogen sulphide (H2S) damages respiratory center in brain, cardiopulmonary damage leading to instantaneous death in a single breath beyond a threshold limit of around 1000 ppm.

Mahuda Oil Extractor

The Mahua tree is a widely found tree in the central and northern part of India. Its flowers and fruits are used for various purposes. The flowers are used to produce alcohol and also used for their medicinal properties for getting relief from cough/cold and joint pain when used for massage. The seeds inside the fruit are used to extract oil, which is mainly used for cooking purposes.

Nilgai Detector & Prevention System

Farmers face a major problem of crop vandalism due to Nilgai and Wild Boars. The crop damage leads to huge losses to the farmer. Farmers tried to use fences and shocking machines to prevent these wild animals, which costed them 3-8 thousand rupees. Moreover these wild animal broke or jumped over these fences.Other preventive measures included spraying cow dung ,egg solution etc but they were unable to get the necessary results. After various field visits and information collection, a two part system was formed (i) Detection (ii) Prevention.

Mahuda seed cracker

Mahuda tree can be found in topical region, this tree is also can grow flowers. Both nuts and flowers can useful in daily life. Mahuva nuts can use to make oil for cooking and also they use to make soap to add fragrance. Mahuva nuts are very benefits for our health it is use diabetes, asthma, skin diseases, blood diseases, etc. their are many problems that they use stones to crack the mahuva nuts after cracking they shell out from the seed, But the main propose of our project is that the villagers was crack the nuts with the stones and handle the nuts with their hand. During operation they may be have hand injuries in hands and also we had experience same problem while cracking.

Load Carrying Device

Laborers who carry load on their heads suffer from immense pain in the neck and spinal cord. Because of the load that is concentrated on their head , they get tired very easily. We tried to make a device with which the load can be shifted to the entire body and energy loss can be reduced. The device was made such that the energy is transferred to the whole body and the weight is not concentrated to one particular body part , preventing major health problems like neck pain and severe body ache.

Mahuda Seed Cracker 

The team of Rangpur Village found the problem of seed cracking. The process of cracking Mahua Seeds to extract oil takes up 20 minutes per kg of Mahua Seeds. This new device cracks the seed more efficiently with respect to time and price and is based on a sharing model. This seed cracker makes the process very easy for these farmers and saves them a lot of time , subsequently increasing profits.

Underground Brine Detection Before Well Digging in Rann of Kutch

Rann of Kutch is the base of approximately 50,000 Agariyas, a community that spend their life extracting salt from the Rann. They come to Rann in the month of October and dig up wells to extract brine solution from 30-70 feet deep. This is a hit and trial process and many times farmers dig deep to find little or no brine solution beneath. Our device can detect if the land has brine solution underneath it to save the people’s efforts. The farmers can use the device to figure out if there is brine underneath before digging.

Desalination of Water

Farmers move to the Rann of Kutch in the beginning of the farming season and carry with themselves 1500 litres of water to sustain 2 months. This is due to the high salt content in the water there. The farmers therefore started working on the water desalination models in the Rann of Kutch.

Toxic Gas Detection

The salt farmers of Kutch face a lot of problems from the toxic gases released from brine. The slow release of toxic gases leads to a lot of health hazards and also death. The farmers therefore worked towards detection of these harmful gases and avoiding carelessness in this matter.

Banana Waste Utilization

Farmers face problem in disposing the huge amount of Banana waste generated which takes 3-4 months to decompose. They simply throw it on the road. The proper disposal of this waste costs around Rs.12000-15000 per hectare. Therefore we came up with an idea to help the farmers supplement their income using the banana waste.There is also lots of waste generation on roads and highways. We identified this present gap and hence came up with an idea to help the farmers supplement their income by using waste of the banana tree.

An Ergonomic and Efficient Chula

Traditional women in the villages till date use Chulahs. While the government has been working on promoting LPG which is easier and faster to use. We have worked on making the chulahs more easy to use and harmless for the health. The chulah especially benifit women who have many breathing problems due to the smoke from traditional chulahs. 

Automated Smart Repellent System

Farmers spend more than Rs 9000 per seasons in buying pesticides and insecticides to prevent the crops from pests and insects. They spray the pesticides twice every week. They waste money on pesticides as well as laborers to do this work. Usage of chemicals not only harms the plants but also causes health problem to the farmers. It also makes the plants very unhealthy to consume because of residual chemicals. Spraying of pesticides on the plant also effect the laborer who is doing that work.

Weed cultivator and modification

When crops are grown in a linear pattern, there is a lot of space in between the rows and columns where weed tends to grow. The tractors are used to plough the weeds out but the cultivator blades have to changed or moved from time to time. This technology was made more easy and efficient for the farmers.

Sanshodh Collect

SRISTI Sanshodh Collect is an initiative model to digitize, simplify, and expedite the cumbersome and haphazard process of innovation documentation. SRISTI Sanshodh Collect is developed keeping in mind that any piece of technology must be future-proof to bring into effect a sustainable solution. The application caters to the field scouts and considers the unavailability of a reliable data collection in the field. Every form draft is saved locally on the user device and the finalized drafts can be sent once the internet is accessible. Apart from this, we have optimized the export feature so that all the data can be easily migrated to/from another database. 

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Braille Slate

The Braille Slate used by blind people is very difficult to use. It requires a person to spell whatever they want to write backwards. Even reading braille becomes difficult. It is quite difficult to adjust the sheet at the right place. We found the solutions to these problems.

Animal Health Monitoring

Farm animals face many health problems which the farmers aren’t able to figure out. Lack of health facilities and carelessness on the part of farmers is a major reason many animals die of expired medicines. We are thinking of designing a device which can be used for Animal Health Monitoring which can monitor their health.

Castor Plucking Device

The castor plant is roughly 4-6 feet in height, the fruits are very thorny and they grow in clustered bunches. In the traditional method of plucking, the farmers hold on to the bunch with one hand and cut it with a sickle that is held with the other. Sometimes the castor fruits fall – either due to the wind or because of harsh movement of the hand. The farmers do not pick up the fallen ones because it is very time consuming, this leads to a 4-5% percent loss. When they hold the bunch, they injure their hands. Sometimes the thorns go in their eyes and cause irritation. This device for castor plucking makes the process very efficient and productive, reducing wastage. 

Low Cost Method for Sitaphal Pulp Preservation

Storing the pulp of Sitaphal requires a lot of care. The pulp changes colour and becomes bitter when exposed to air. We made a technology to store and keep fresh this sitaphal pulp which could then be transported and sold to ice cream companies. The main function of the device is the proper storage of sitaphal pulp and safe transportation to the given area. 

Plough Depth Sensor for bullock drawn plough and tractor/power tiller

Optimum depth of tillage operations is required for better yield of crops. Soil profile including moisture content, compactness and texture affects the depth of operation. Farmers using the bullock drawn plough try to maintain the depth of operation based on their experience, however it is very difficult to know the variation until it is too much. With this device the farmer can accordingly adjust the depth of ploughing by adding/removing weight on the plough or changing the angle of beam. 

Sensor to measure the nutrient level in the agricultural fields

Initially the problem statement was to develop a probe to measure micro-nutrients in the soil. The farmers just used there intuition to decide the amount of fertilizers in the soil. Most of the farmers used phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizers in their soils. So we are trying to develop a system that is portable and also cheap and affordable which can help farmers realize which nutrients are necessary for their soil at what moment. 

Rannveli: Rann ki Haveli - Temporary Shelter for Salt Farmers

In the monsoon months, Rann of Kutch is submerged in sea water. As the water recedes from October, the Agariyas move in to set up their salt pans. They dig wells to pump out the brine water which is further pumped into the salt pans where the natural evaporation process leaves behind salt crystals. Braving a relentless 40 degrees during day time, the Agariyas live for seven months in the shacks beside their salt pans. The main focus was to design a relatively cool home for the salt farmers such that it reduces the building cost the following year.

A tool for effective well digging for Salt farmers 

A salt farmer has to dig 12-15 wells every season and only 3-4 of these wells bear brine water for salt farming. The farmers have to dig these wells manually and have to determine from experience if the soil contains brine water or not. This whole process takes a time of 30-40 days. The team worked on effective methods of well digging which allowed the farmer to start growing salt earlier and hence increase production.

App for field trials and Pest Control

In many developing countries, farmers do not benefit from the advantages of using good quality seeds. To test whether certain seeds are suitable for a particular area, in this case Gujarat, researches give out seeds of different varieties for farmers to try out and monitor the crop and it’s yield. Based on which, good quality seeds are identified. Until now, researchers at NIF have been distributing seeds to the farmers and the collection of crop data is done by scouts who would visit the farms at regular intervals and manually collect data. If 5 varieties of seeds were given to 5 farmers of a single crop, a scout has to visit each one of them, collect data, segregate and tabulate it according to the attributes involved etc.

Broom Making Device

People from Rajasthan migrate to Ahmedabad to make a living making brooms. They leave their native place and come here to stay in temporary structures, make brooms and sell them. However the earnings do not fulfil their basic needs.

The objective is to make a device/tool to assist the broom making process to ​Increase the safety by making the process less injury prone, Reduce the manual effort in beating the leaves on an assembly of nails, Reduce the time required to produce brooms

Seed Dibbler

In agriculture, precision seeding is a method that involves placing seed at a precise spacing and depth. This is in contrast to broadcast seeding, where seed is scattered over an area.  Although precise hand placement would qualify, precision seeding usually refers to a mechanical process. A wide range of hand-push and powered precision seeders are available for small- to large-scale jobs. The depth and spacing vary depending on the type of crop and the desired plant density. ​However there are few farmers who still perform precision seeding manually. These are the farmers who cannot afford to buy tractors. The objective was to design an efficient seed dribbler overcoming the problem of crowding and seed spacing.

Cactus Fruit plucker

Traditional method of cactus fruit plucking involves use of a wooden stick/ stick with hook and container. Ripe fruits are hit lightly with a stick and are collected in the container. Ripe cactus fruits easily fall in a container.​ The device hence designed was to provide an efficient tool for plucking cactus fruits which has following features:​ easy and safe to use, similar or improved time efficiency, cost effective and requires less physical efforts.