Don’t rush to cover up harvested grain

Hyderabad: To eliminate the use of plastic and also to help farmers in the monsoon season, as they have come up with various challenges, Telangana State Innovation Cell(TSIC) Uppari Praveen and K Shramitha innovators have come up with automatic rain cover and bio-degradable plastic products These innovations are been recognised and also supported by Telangana State Innovation Cell (TSIC) under its flagship programme Intinta Innovator programme.

Uppari Praveen, a young innovator and resident of Medak, innovated automatic rain cover. Speaking about his innovation, he said, “during the rainy season we have seen framers, my father is also a farmer, faces hardship to sell their crops in the market. As a solution to this problem, I made a tarpaulin cover to automatically cover the grain when it rains.

Fastening it in the market yards can save the grain in case of sudden rain. Also, a pulley is placed in addition to it. It keeps turning with noise to protect the grain from birds. Rain sensor detects early rain and covers the grain dried in

sunlight to protect it from germinating and losing the produce value.” The project aims to design and implement a mechanism that can cover the grain kept in the sun for drying

post-harvesting. Once grain is wet it loses colour and value and hence cannot be sold in the market. To overcome this problem, our system detects as soon as rain falls and starts moving the soft cover above the grain without human intervention.

At present, we are doing various trial runs and also I am trying to improvise my device by adding weather forecast-based cover activation and sending messages to farmers in case of rain starts and the status of the cover will open and close. Right now we are testing this prototype and once we yield good results we will launch it,” he added.

Shramitha, inter first year student of NSKK Junior College, Gagillapur has developed biodegradable plastic products using algae. Explaining bout the innovation, she said, “It is an eco-friendly alternative to plastic cups and plates, as plastics are hazardous to our environment. Her initiative seeks to repurpose the overlooked resource by using algae converting it into biodegradable plastic. I have created biodegradable plastics from spirulina, a blue-green algae that is already used in cosmetics and foods. Spirulina is a good choice for bio-plastic because it is carbon neutral and can be cultivated on a large scale. Right now we are working on it to improvise it and also in this process TSIC is supporting us to take this forward.”