These three professors of Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) have come out with a solution to a major issue faced by farmers: Plantains collapsing in strong winds. An innovative collar belt developed by the three will effectively prevent plantain from falling off during severe storms and heavy downpours.
It’s after five years of study and analysis that M B Santhosh Kumar, Associate Professor of Information Technology, Professor B Kannan of Computer Applications Department and Professor Sunil Kumar of Civil Engineering Department developed the low cost system called Portable Agriculture Network System (PANS), an innovative collar belt. “We developed the system because we want to help the farmers. We spent months with the farmers learning about the specific issue of crops mainly plantain breaking in strong winds and started working out different models to find a solution to it,” said Santhosh Kumar.
He said their study was exhaustive as they had to cover different sorts of data pertaining to soil, structure and polymer science for designing PANS. “It was a collaborative effort of various departments right from Civil Engineering to Ship Technology. We are happy that we could develop such a system for the benefit of the farmers,” he said, adding that Cusat has obtained a patent for PANS, which has undergone successful trial runs in Ernakulam and Thrissur districts for the last three years.
As per an official statement, PANS functions by reinforcing the banana vines with iron pipes fixed to the ground from all four sides. This straightforward and cost-efficient mechanism can withstand wind from any direction, and the corners and edges of the gardens are fortified with iron pipes for extra strength. The bananas are then enveloped in a collar fashioned from materials such as an old bicycle tube or conveyor belt, which are then attached to the iron pipes with strings. Multiple bananas can be tied to a single pipe, and the ropes can be fashioned from various affordable materials such as dried banana peel, fibers, and old cotton clothes. This sturdy and durable system can last for up to 5 years and costs only Rs 60-80 per plantain.
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