One of the new agriculture implements being tried out. Telegraph picture

Jorhat, Dec. 6: An improvised yoke which sits lightly on the short Assam bullocks, an Udairaj cooking stove with slanting chimney, a cono weeder which reduces fatigue, these and many such innovations to suit Assam conditions by the agri-engineering department of the Assam Agricultural University are of no benefit to farmers. Blame it on lack of entrepreneurs in the state to manufacture these in bulk.

“We have made many things and demonstrated the technology to cultivators and people living in rural areas. However, we are not being able to transfer the technology because there is no one to manufacture these,” P.K. Das, head of the department, said.

“A case in point is the standard yoke, which is made for taller and heavier Indian bullocks. When these are placed on our bullocks they develop sores and infection. So we modified this to suit the size of our cattle but there is no one to manufacture it,” he said.

Likewise, the cono weeder causes fatigue after a couple of hours of use and this, too, was designed so that the fatigue was less and it was easier to use. However, there are no manufacturers of the improved version.

Manas P. Baruah, research engineer of the department, said as the government was focusing on conservation of fossil fuels, an attempt had been made to improve the quality of the indigenous chullah, which has low heat output and low thermal efficiency. “The Udairaj smokeless improved chullah was tested under Assam conditions and it was found to be promising as it increased thermal efficiency from 7-9 per cent to 27 per cent. As the villagers did not want to have the roof pierced for the chimney because of heavy rainfall in these parts, a slanting chimney was created. The material of the chimney, which was previously asbestos pipes, also had to be replaced with metal pipes as asbestos slowly went out of use because of greater breakage. Despite making so many changes, the rural women have not been able to put it to use because of non-availability,” Baruah said.

He said recently only one entrepreneur had come up to manufacture the improvised Sigri stove, which uses paddy husk as fuel and is portable.

“After a lot of experiments we came up with a material which will make the perforated chimney inside the Sigri stove last for around two years, instead of the usual six months in Assam’s humid conditions,” he said.

Das said another innovation, which was undergoing field trials, was attaching a reaper harvester to a power tiller so that the farmer need not buy two of these equipment, which were both costly.

“It is demoralising to come up with technology which cannot be widely used by the people for whom it is being made,” he said.

Das said what was first required was entrepreneurship motivation and development as it was not for the agri-engineering department to commercially manufacture these goods.

“We can only sell the technology and agreements will have to be signed for a percentage of the profits to be given to us in the initial years as is done in public-private partnership mode,” he said.