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Grassroots to Global |
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Making Man Reach the Moon: Top of Tree |
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Simple solutions work, and they work in ways which often surprise us. The coconut tree climbing device, designed by Mr M J Joseph, a farmer from Kerala, and his father, has scored unique success in USA. This simple and easy to use device to climb up or down coconut palm, arecanut or other similar trees is handy for people untrained to climb up such tall trees, swiftly and with ease. It can be very useful for even trained people. They can reduce drudgery, and climb faster using lesser energy. It can be used for gathering nuts or spraying pesticides. It can also be used to climb electric poles. This device is particularly handy since in many places traditional tree climbers are becoming more and more difficult to come by, since climbing up a tree with a straight trunk requires considerable skill.
Mr M J Joseph, alias Appachan, is a school drop-out. Appachan’s first innovation, a device to extract milk from coconut did not diffuse well due to its high costs. Though he dropped out of school due to financial reasons, Appachan retained sufficient curiosity to learn from his surroundings and his father, Joseph Mudhukulathil, who also has been a very innovative farmer. Appachan and his tree climber bagged a prize in the farm implements category in the Second National Grassroots Technological Innovation and Traditional Knowledge Competition, organised by National Innovation Foundation (NIF) in the year 2001-2002.
The utility of this device attracted Mr Kevin Davies, a distributor of new products in USA to place an initial order of 25 units. “ The device worked perfectly. I climbed a 40-feet coconut tree very quickly and safely. I am impressed”, he wrote with satisfaction. He infact, offered to be its distributor for North and South America.
Coupled with some basic safety devices like a harness, this device makes climbing up a straight -trunk tree or a pole quite quick, easy and safe. The device, with no sophisticated technology has not only been well accepted in US, but also achieved whopping success back home. Appachan has sold over 6,000 units to people across the country. Recently, Coconut Board has expressed an interest in ordering 50,000 units, to be distributed amongst farmers at a subsidised price in Kerela (http://coconutboard. nic.in). NIF is in the process of granting him venture support from its Micro Venture Innovation Fund (MVIF) to establish an enterprise of
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee, 17(1) & (2): 14, 2006 |
