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Honey bee publish details |
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| Name |
Guo Daoyin |
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| State |
Gujarat |
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| Category |
CHIN - VI |
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| Title |
Harvesting Safely, Sowing Frugally |
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| Abstract |
The diversity of grassroots innovations scouted by the volunteers of China Innovation Network (CHIN) led by Prof. Zang Liyan and Prof. Biyan continues to demonstrate the merit of cross cultural learning and fertilization of ideas. The fact that many of these ideas are also being tried in India shows the potential of people to people learning through Honey Bee Network. The compact reaping machine, seed cum fertilizer drill and track level bar are some such ideas. We hope that Chinese innovators would continue to take pride in sharing their ideas with other innovators in India and worldwide. |
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| Details |
A Compact Reaping Machine – A Light-Duty Combine Harvester
Guo Daoyin (38, middle school pass, Liangshan village, Bishan county) makes shoes at home for living. Many young people of his village have migrated to the city to earn their living. Farming is done by the elders. In 2002, Guo had an idea of making a paddy harvester to relieve the elders of the drudgery. But it was a challenging task for him. Guo visited nearby areas to understand the function of a combine harvester. He modified his device over and over again and finally in 2006, his machine was in a good shape. Although the speed is slower than a big combine harvester, this machine is light. It can be easily carried by a person from one place to another and is suitable for local topography, i.e. hilly terrain and farmers with smaller land holding.
Automatic Window Switcher
Zhang Daichang (40, middle school pass, Zhongkengkou village, Chongyi county, Jiangxi province) worked in an electrical company. Slowly, he developed an interest in fabricating electrical gadgets. He survived an electric shock in the year 2007 after which he could not work there anymore. He thought that if electric current was so powerful, why could not he use it to innovate solutions for farmers? Whenever there was a sudden shower while working in fields, they always asked Zhang to close their windows. Therefore, he thought that an automatic window will be useful to them. Based on the principle of conductivity of water, he developed a mechanism such that when it rained, the moisture turns a switch on and off to close and open the window. Hence, the windows open and close automatically according to the weather. For example, it closes when there are strong winds or rain. He has a patent in his name for this innovation.
Source: http://www.jxgztv.com/Item/30221.aspx, video downloaded on 29th August 2009.
Firewood and Straw Gas Stove
Xian Changjie (50, farmer, Qixingchi village, Ningqiang county, Shanxi province) felt that cooking by using firewood and straw as fuel was time-consuming and untidy. He liked to watch television programmes and read magazines on innovations in villages. Being intrigued and inspired, he planned to develop an energy efficient stove that used firewood and straw. He kept trying to make it in accordance with the theories that he had read in books. With his hit and trial method, he took about six months to make a stove fuelled by firewood and straw. Compared to the stove that uses biogas, this stove’s design is simple. It is small in size, affordable and energy efficient. This stove can boil a kettle of water within seven minutes. To cook one meal, it needs about half kg firewood and straw. It was patented in 2006.
Water Pipe with Adjustable Outlet
Liu Quangde (36, junior middle school pass, Yangqian village, Liaozhong county, Liaoning province) enjoys experimenting with small innovations. Four years back, while he was watering plants in a greenhouse, the water pipe troubled him a lot. An average greenhouse is about 100 metres in length whereas the hose had only one outlet. The water pipe had to be moved around which was inconvenient, the pipe being very heavy. Moreover, the connection of the pipe often became loose and led to wastage of water. Liu started browsing the internet and read books in order to find a solution. He thought it would be great if the pipe had a movable water outlet, but he could not really materialize it. It was only after trying continuously for three years that he could come out with a slide fastener which could control the position of the water outlet. This design is convenient and saves time, energy and water, he claims.
Floor Levelling Bar
Cheng Chenggao (42, primary school pass, farmer, Chengjia village, Jiangxi province) works in the city, paving bricks in houses when not busy with farming. They had to use a small piece of iron sheet to level the floor. But the result was not
satisfactory. Sometimes, they had to rework the floor, so he thought of designing a track level bar. In 2001, his new design was successful.
The track level bar can level the cement fast; it can also be used to check the unevenness of the paved bricks.
Portable Speaker
Sun Wei (27, junior high school dropout, Laogongying village) started his own business after leaving school and converted his house into a paid guest residence for tourists. He had a fascination for electrical products from childhood. One day, in the year 2006, some guests stayed overnight with his family. In the night, they turned on the car radio for entertainment and opened the car doors so that the sound was loud enough. Sun Wei thought it was a little inconvenient, so he wanted to have a portable speaker. Soon he started working on developing it and after three months, in February 2007, the first prototype was ready. This speaker is different from ordinary ones in the sense that it can be used in cars, computers, outdoor etc. and additionally, it can also work independently. Sun Wei then, got his innovation patented.
Ginger Harvester
Luo Hongming (58, primary school pass, Guokang village, Liaoning province) had an experimental mind and enjoyed trying new things right from his childhood. He tried different occupations, such as pig farming, and mushroom cultivation. His village has a history of growing ginger. But the farmers could not grow it well as the harvesting period was very short, approximately just one week. If they harvested the crop early, it was not mature enough; if they did it late, ginger could not be stored because of the frost. Further, ginger harvesting had to be done manually which was both, time and labour consuming. It often damaged the crop. Luo thought of ways to solve this problem. He inferred that a ginger harvester had to have the function of a front loader and a rotator and soon came up with his machine which is time and labour efficient. Ginger can be harvested without any damage.
Seeder cum Fertilizer Machine
Zhao Zhenji (42, a junior middle school pass, farmer, Yingpan village, Jilin province) is considered quite lazy by the local people. Actually, he was weary of his monotonous life and wanted to try something new. Besides farming, he used to plant trees, feed fish, chicken, rabbit, etc. He also tried to run a wine and a beverage factory, but failed.
In 2004, while seeding, he noticed that other farmers first ploughed the field, fertilizing it at the same time, followed by seeding. He thought about the possibility of combining fertilizing and seeding. After one year, Zhao successfully designed a seeder cum fertilizer drill. The interesting thing was that he did not have to plough the field before seeding. Compared to the traditional way, this way, the output of his field increased by 250 kg more per mu (8.15 acres) approximately. Earlier, while ploughing the field, the tyres of the tractor compressed the soil and made it harder, therefore, the roots of maize could not penetrate the hard layer of soil. He also left the maize straw to rot in the field to conserve soil moisture as mulch besides adding fertility to the soil. Now, the amount of fertilizer he uses in his field is only about 20 percent of the amount that he used initially.
Contributed by Profs Liyan, Biyan and their team of CHIN volunteers, translated by Alice. |
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee 20(2); 16-17 2009 |
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| Sout |
Profs Liyan, Biyan and their team of CHIN volunteers, translated by Alice. |
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