Anantnag, May 15 (KNO): To bring technological intervention in farming, a 23-year-old innovator from Anantnag district has developed a fully automated seed sowing machine.
Naik Qayoom son of Abdul Ahad Naik of Kreeri village in Dooru of Anantnag is not only a national innovator but also a ray of hope for people who want to go in the field of innovations as he has been helping youth interested in innovations.
Qayoom told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that he found scarce technological innovations are being implemented in the agriculture sector and people in Kashmir are still confined to traditional ways, so there is need for innovations in the agriculture sector.
“I decided to make innovations in agriculture sector and after some efforts, my project of automated seed sowing machine was selected at Punjab university in 2020, and it was selected through National Institute of Technology (NIT), Srinagar for National level as well, but I decided to go for NIT Srinagar,” he said.
“After working for two years, this project was made successful and it will be very beneficial for farmers for line sowing that will boost their production,” Naik said.
He said that line and point sowing technique is very rare in Kashmir, however, Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) centers in Kashmir had started it but they too require more manpower for it.
“Our machine is doing both line and point dropping with seed control and has the control on the time frame one seed will require to sow and the farmer has to just run it in lines and farmers don't need to use their hands,” he said.
Naik said that the machine can sow any seed and can be used for fertilizer scattering as well. “The project was launched by Director industries in 2022 under the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME).”
“I want the administration to help me set up a manufacturing unit as the orders for the machine have already started pouring in so that we can begin large-scale production to help the farmer community," he added. “There are three versions available with rates ranging to Rs 15,000 to Rs 30,000 with three in one technology.”
Naik has several innovations to his name and has been helping other innovators as well and he has brought innovations of several innovators in the market.
He has received several awards at state and national level for agricultural startups and he is working on many other projects as well—(KNO)