: Engineers Low-Cost Harvester Clears Stones, Makes Land Cultivable in Hours #IndiaNEWS #Innovation In 2016, K Deepak Reddy graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from Hyderabad and returned

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Engineers Low-Cost Harvester Clears Stones, Makes Land Cultivable in Hours #IndiaNEWS #Innovation
In 2016, K Deepak Reddy graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from Hyderabad and returned to his native village Borancha in the Sangareddy district of Telangana.
One day, while out and about on errands, he came across a vast farmland that was lying vacant. “The land areas had been empty since my childhood days. When I started making frequent visits to the area, I realised that no crops had grown there for years,� he says.
Deepak tells The Better India that he asked farmers nearby why hundreds of acres of land had remained barren for years, and was told it was due to the large amounts of stone debris, which had made it unfeasible to carry out any farming activity in the area.
“I also learned that removing stones from the land required huge expenses, and marginal farmers with 5-7 acres of land could not afford to spend thousands of rupees for the task, in addition to the investment required for agricultural activity,� he explains.
Moreover, even if the farmer is ready to invest that kind of money, removing these stones and rocks from the farmland demands at least five or six years and recurring costs. “The surface layer has 60% of the stones. However, it takes another few years to remove the rest via multiple cycles of seasonal ploughing and tilling of the land,� he says, adding that this activity can only be conducted during summer months, when the soil is dry.
Multi-harvester made by Deepak Reddy.
When he researched further about the terrain, Deepak realised that thousands of acres of barren land had remained unused across nearby states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. “Other countries also face this problem, but they have mechanised solutions. In India, there was no cost-effective equipment for the task,� he notes.
So he built a low-cost multi-harvester machine for farmers, which not only digs out stones in a matter of hours, but also harvests potatoes, onions and other root vegetables.
Simple, yet effective
Deepak says that after his graduation, he was upgrading his skills by learning simulation and software design. “I decided to use the skill and develop a machine that could be attached to a tractor and thus remove stones from the upper layer of soil as well as underneath,� he adds.
The 26-year-old says that he worked for years to build the harvester. “My idea was to build a machine that is suitable for Indian farmers. It needed to be low-cost with basic features. However, I thought that if it could also harvest potatoes and root vegetables, it would add value to the machine,� he says.
Deepak says he worked on a concept where the equipment is attached to and pulled by a tractor moving forward.

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