Go to Google’s app store and find out how many Android apps are there meant for farmers. Very few indeed. Though there is a plethora of apps that help you in doing things that you want to as well as others you don’t really care about (as long as you’re paying for them), unfortunately there aren’t many people out there who realize the kind of change technology can possibly bring to the rural India. Thanks to Santosh Ostwal, who himself is a son of a farmer, who came up with the idea of “Nano Ganesh” that has changed the life of many farmers in rural India. Nano Ganesh is Santosh’s brainchild, who is the CEO of Ossian Agro Automation.
Nano Ganesh is already popular among farmers and around 5000 farmers in Maharashtra itself were reported to use it since 2008. Nano Ganesh is in fact a circuit board, which is connected to the irrigation pump itself. It can be communicated to with a cellphone using a code to turn the pump on or off. The implications of this simple application cannot be understated. While our metros consume insane amounts of electricity while running air conditioners and generators to give power backup, our villages face acute shortage of the same. May times the farmer travels kilometers to switch on the the irrigation pump only to realize that there is no electricity. Some even used to wake up at night to switch on the pump as this was the only time when electricity was available. With this application the farmers can now know certainly if there’s any electricity at the pump site and then accordingly turn it on and off.
What gave the the concept a real boost was the introduction of this app on Nokia phones. Nokia has a large consumer base in India and offers a number of options for budget phones which have been embraced by the rural India. A simple application means now most people have access to their irrigation pumps with a click of a button or tap of the screen. Thanks to this integration of technology with farming, the number of Nano Ganesh units has surpassed 15000 mark. This is just a beginning and it expects to reach every nook and corner of rural India in the next three years.
Recognition has followed Santosh for his efforts to improve the quality of life of people in these areas. He has been awarded at DST Lockheed-Martin IIGP 2011 Program, ,The Tech Museum at San Jose as well as at All Innovators contest, lately. Santosh won a cash prize of $25,000 at Nokia’s event in Barcelona. Ossian Agro has been into talks with Nokia to get their app pre-installed on Nokia phones, which would increase the awareness of their product in different zones. The company has also been able to take its business outside India making deals with 16 Caribbean countries. The Nano Ganesh though doesn’t intend to be limited to irrigation pumps only. The company has plans to integrate it with roof-top tanks and diesel generators in urban area. Though it’s hard for anyone related to agriculture to find suitable investors we wish Santosh and his team luck in their pursuit and who knows tomorrow you too might be using Nano Ganesh to check the level of your water tank or turn generator on in case of much dreaded power loss in summer.
Via: Business-Standard