"The Home of Friends"

Technologies

One of the focus areas of Mitraniketan is innovating and disseminating appropriate technologies for rural development. Most of the technologies developed aims at increasing productivity and reducing the drudgery of workers. Energy saving, water conservation, better housing are some of the areas of focus in addition to agricultural technologies. All these technologies are developed / innovated based on the local needs and in collaboration with technical institutions. The R&D work is funded by the Department of Science & Technology(DST), Government of India Under CORE SUPPORT.

Some of those technologies currently marketing are as follows:

Download Brochure

Motorized Winch for lifting Chinese Fishing Net

Chinese fishing nets are commonly used in backwaters of Kerala. These are fixed land institutions or shore operated lift nets which has to be lower into the water to trap fish and raise it to extract the catch. It requires at least three laborers at a time to lift. So the process is labor intensive and uneconomical.

To reduce the manpower we have developed a motorized winch to lift the net with a single person. It is operated with 1 HP motor. The main component of the machine is a metallic winch, which is used for winding and unwinding of ropes. The average energy consumption is 1 unit. So far we have installed 12 machines at Azheekkal in Kollam district. The machine is currently marketed for Rs. 30,000/-

Natural Convection Solar Dryer

A low cost Solar dryer is innovated for drying fruits & vegetables in a protected environment. Open sun drying is conventional method adopted by small entrepreneurs which remain unprotected from environmental conditions like rain, dust, and infestation. The new dryer developed is a performance enhanced Natural Convection Dryer with pre heater and chimney. This will ensure increasing air temperature, and thereby increasing its moisture holding capacity and also improved air flow from inlet to outlet leading to proper drying in the drying chamber. The cost of the solar dryer is Rs. 25,000/-.

Paddy Winnower

A low cost winnower is developed for winnowing paddy. It is a process of separating grain from a mixture of grain and chaff in air stream created. The conventional paddy winnowing is labour intensive. The winnower consists of a feeding hopper and an integrated fan to blast air to separate the chaff from grain, and two separate outlets to facilitate grading of the paddy grain. The winnower cost Rs. 7,500/-. This is having the capacity of 200 kg per hour.

Poly bag filler

Poly bag filler is used for filling potting mixture in polythene bags, in which plantlets are planted. Normally poly bag filling is done manually. The new machine consists of a hopper to hold potting mixture, a sliding valve and a movable work table to support bags while filling. This is mainly useful in plant nurseries. Cost of the machine is Rs. 5000/-

Pedal operated Stone Crusher

Stone crushing is a tedious job often done by women in quarries. They manually crush the rubbles into metal pieces using hammer.

To reduce the drudgery and improving the productivity, we have developed a Pedal operated stone crusher. The hammer is fixed in a frame made of mild steel. Hammering mechanism consists of a pedal, hammering lever and the connecting ropes. A spring is provided for retracting of the lever after hammering by releasing the pressure on foot pedal. The cost of the equipment is Rs. 30,000/-

Cage for poultry and goat

Appropriate housing for domestic animals is one of the needs of the small households having less land. Based on this need, we have innovated and developed high tech cages of different sizes for poultry and goats. It aims at safety and protection from other animals and birds in addition to maintain a safe environment. Price varies based on the size of the Cage.

An advanced Poultry cage has been produced by Core staff at its Rural Technology Centre (RTC) and is given to 107 houses in the local village on a trial basis. The cage has been designed to raise layer birds suitable to the small backyards of Kerala. The cage consists of facilities for feeding, collecting egg, and for collecting poultry waste for using as fertilizer. It has a capacity to house 10 chicks and it cost Rs.5000/-

Dump pots for household composting

Household based bio degradable waste disposal is a problem, especially in urban houses. The Core group produced a 3 pot set in Pottery for disposing the kitchen waste and converting it into compost for kitchen garden. Out of the 3 pots, 2 will be used to fill waste one by one, while the third one is used to store the compost. The first 2 pots have provision to drip water /moisture from the waste. It cost Rs.800 including the bacteria used for fast composting. The product is being marketed to urban houses in Trivandrum city Corporation.

It is a bio digester for composting kitchen waste at household level. It is suited for a family of four to five members generating 1.5 – 2 kg per waste per day. The bio-digester pots are made up of clay and kiln dry. It consists of 3 sets of pots which kept vertically one above the other and the pot on the top is covered by a lid. The maximum capacity of each pot is 5 kg. The cost of the digester is Rs.750/-

Download Brochure

Jack Fruit Cutter

This is a device to cut large size jack fruits. It is developed to reduce wastage and drudgery of women. 5-10 kg jack fruit can be easily cut it to several pieces within a minute. It is a useful device for jack fruit processing units. The table top model jack fruit cutter cost Rs. 5000/-.

Manually operated Cement Mortar mixture

To reduce the drudgery of rural masons a manual operated cement mortar mixture has been developed. It is a mobile unit consists of a drum with mixing blade which can operate with a rotary lever. It can reduce wastage of mortar; reduce drudgery, save time in addition to proper mixing. Cost of the unit is Rs. 18000/-

Fuel Efficient stove

Fuel efficient stove is one of the technologies identified for dissemination among rural households to control carbon emission. There are varieties of stoves developed by different research stations available. The fuel efficiency of these stoves varies, some of those stoves are portable, some of them are fixed and it needs different types and sizes of fuel wood. We have selected the ASTRA (Appropriate Science and Technology for Rural Areas) stove developed by the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore for promotion.

The advantage of ASTRA wood burning device is that it consumes only 65-70% of the fuel than in conventional cooking stoves currently used. The stove releases smoke through chimneys outside the house. It has three pans for cooking at the same time using the same amount of fuel.

Coconut (husk) defibering machine (Fiber Extractor):

In collaboration with Central Coir Research Institute (CCRI), we have developed a Fiber Extractor for coconut husks. The machine mainly consists of a shaft with teethed beating arms which rotates in a cylindrical cage. It is powered by 10 HP motor. It has the capacity to extract fiber from 500 husks per hour. The cost of the machine is Rs.100,000/- which is less than the market price.

Rotary Sand Sieve

Sand sieving is one of the mason’s assistant’s work which involves drudgery, time consumption, and usually more than one worker is required, in addition to poor quality of sieved sand. Slow sieving affects the progress of the construction work.

Roof top Rain water Harvesting

Water harvesting is one of the areas in which Mitraniketan working since long. Roof top rain water is safe to use after proper filtration. Most of the building roofs in the campus is used to collect and store rain water in storage tanks, including redirecting it to unused wells & ponds to recharge ground water. A unique storage below the building (tank built under the basement) is demonstrated in Mitraniketan campus. The unit cost of the system shown in the picture is Rs.7 per liter, means 10,000 lit capacity tank unit costs Rs.70,000/-.