The team went to Aluva where they met farmers Vipul Deshai and Bharat Deshai. The farmers said they don’t use seed dribbler.They sow seeds manually which results in many health issues like shoulder ache and pain in hands They have 4-5 labourers who sow 3-4 hectres each day. They sow 1 packet of 450 grams to complete a row. They practice cotton and divala farming. The soil is sticky.

Cotton seed: depth is finger deep, distance 1 foot

Divala: depth 1 finger, distance 4 feet.

Trying out the previous prototype the farmers said it was heavy and maintaining seed distance would be a problem. They told that they could afford a seed dribbler within the range 2-3 thousand and were ready to use such a machine. They had both women and men labour within the age group 21 to 35 yrs. They performed multi-cropping of cotton, divala and wheat. Generally they sowed one seed at a time. They preferred discontinuous dribbler for cotton and continuous for wheat. They earn 20 to 25 thousand per year. They said that cotton seeds are sown along the sides of a channel with water sprinklers in between while wheat is sown between the channels. The farmers use power motor for irrigation and don’t use drip irrigation due to problem of blockage. They use urea as fertilizer after sowing of seeds is complete. Seeds are procured from IFFCO, Vikram Paanch and Ankur Jaibhitti. Then the team met Rathod parhin from Amrapur who used a tractor for sowing seeds. Looking at the previous prototype he said that it was of no use to him and time consuming when compared to his tracto. He performed multicropping of cotton, jowar, bajra, maize. He said that tractor can perform the task of putting fertilizers as well as seed sowing.

Field visit 2

Bhavesh Dhrangi

Visited Bhavesh Bhai’s field to test the previously made prototype and had a conversation with Bhavesh Bhai to know his opinion.

• The soil was loose and had had less moisture

• The team ollected seeds of wheat, grams, cotton, and pigeon-pea from him

• Bhavesh Dhrangi said that rice grains are sown with hands and no seed dribbler is required

• Different soil types are preset in his village- rough dry sticky

• Both drip and open irrigation is used

• He said if a seed dribbler is more efficient, cost won’t be a barrier

• For cotton 30 cm is seed space and 1.5 feet depth. For lady finger 30 cm is seed space and 1.5 feet depth

• Above 18 yrs old labourers work in the field and educated children don’t want to take up farming

• Both male and female workers work in the farms

• They use two crops for multi-cropping

• He suggested that seeds and fertizers should go together while dribbling

• DAP fertilizer is used. With two seeds 5-6 fertilizer grains is sown

• Dribbler should be light in weight. Weight limit should be 5 kg

• With 20 kg seeds 70 to 80 quintal production is obtained

• Best method is organic farming although the crop production is slow as compared to farming with fertilizers

• Destruction of crops by wild buffaloes is a problem.

Dr. Naushad

He suggested that the seed dribbler should be multitasking like fertilizer should be put along with the seeds in order to attract the farmers. He suggested that previously made manual seed dribblers were a failure because there was no perfection in planting the number of seeds. The seed rate used to change which could be observed after germination. He said that we have to check out for errors to know after what interval the seed rate changes. Soil types change in different areas. Previously made prototypes were sold for Rs1200. Digger/pointer should be of different sizes. More weight should be downwards for easy digging. Fertilizer amount changes with different seed types. He suggested us to design a dribbler for one particular crop depending on the size of seed such that the seed rate should not change. He told us to look out for a crop for which the dribbler has not yet been designed, to look out for its positive and negative factors and then go for multi-cropping. He suggested going ahead with the crops like maize, soyabean, groundnut and cotton. He suggested designing the seed dribbler depending on the area. Before sowing of seeds ploughing is already done in most of the areas. He said we should make farmers understand the difference in using the manual seed dribbler.

Mind Mapping