In Kerala, in the days when coconut palms were everywhere, it was the most engaging sight to watch a man — with his feet trapped inside a loop of rope — go up the palm effortlessly and cut coconuts. He would then climb down in the same rhythm and move on to the next palm. The man would cover an entire grove in a day.
Now, there are fewer coconut palms and fewer people available to climb these. Innovators are coming up with options to climb the majestic palms. Gadgets have been developed to enable anyone, including a woman, to climb up the palm and make a living of it. There are also robotic tree grabbers that would make even a human climber unnecessary.
One of the topics to be discussed at the Global Conference on Women in Agriculture, which is being held in Delhi next week, is the role of mechanisation in helping women reduce their efforts and save time in farm labour.
The Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR) in Kozhikode, a part of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, has been using mechanical tree grabbers to train women in tree-climbing. The IISR in partnership with the Coconut Development Board recently gave a six-day training to a group of 20 women at the Krishi Vigyan Kendra at Peruvannamuzhi in tree-climbing using the tree-grabber. The machine helps the climber climb up the palm, as if he/she was going up a ladder, with two pedals supporting a loop tied around the palm and the pedals taking the loop up as the climber presses on them in turn.
That is like an extreme example. There are other simple chores that have a pressing need for a mechanical intervention.
Machines are often looked upon as an enemy of man, something that will drive people out of work. Machines are also opening new avenues of income. The ICAR’s National Research Centre for Women in Agriculture in Orissa has to its credit several interventions to help women farm labour such as machines to plant crops, or to dehusk and so on.
There are also interventions that are related to not strictly farm work. For instance, the institute developed an ice cream maker that does not need electricity to make ice creams. This could be a boon for a woman who has invested in livestock in a Orissa hamlet.
There has not been any dearth of innovations, but these rarely reach the people who need them.
The National Innovation Foundation of the Government of India last week announced three awards specifically addressing farm labour-related innovations. The awards worth Rs 10 lakh would be given to innovations that find a mechanised solution to paddy transplantation, another for tea bud plucking and a third one for a design for a kitchen stove using fire wood.
Says Anil Gupta who heads the foundation, “These awards would at least try to bring a near-perfect solution to the fore.” But, Gupta also agrees that marketing these in rural areas is the real challenge. And, even the foundation does not have any perfect answer yet for this one.
What made the Chinese villages manufacturing hubs for almost everything under the sun, could be the formula that would finally reduce the gap between the producer and the consumer. The beneficiary would be the women who are the face of farm labour, spending entire day transplanting crops or pulling tea leaves and filling the baskets tied on their backs.
