After reading about farmer suicides in newspapers, many people feel sad. But then they flip the page and move on. However, when something like this happens all around you, it’s hard to ignore. This thought of an 18-year-old Yogesh Manikpuri, from the Government Higher Secondary School, Bilaspur prompted him to innovate.

In Bilaspur, such unfortunate incidents are a part of everyday reality. Many small-scale farmers have committed suicide due to the burden of debts. Sometimes, this also stems from the lack of funds to afford better farming equipment to improve yields.

“I came up-close to these issues through a friend who comes from a farming family. As the younger generation, we wanted to do our bit in solving the issue,” says Yogesh.

He, along with Manish Yadav and Nikhil Prajapati, spent months to create a successful alpha model of the ‘Atal Krishi Mitra’, an all-in-one device which helps to take care of all farming needs, at a low cost of just Rs 2000.

Ploughing, sowing, weeding, cutting, pesticide sprinkling, fertilising, irrigation and harvesting – these standard steps in farming usually involve equipment that can be expensive for a small-scale farmer.

So they end up doing most of the work manually, thus limiting efficiency and output. But ‘Mitra’ device fills this gap as a multi-purpose tool at a small scale. And to address ground realities in villages, the device could run on electricity, solar-powered batteries or could be operated manually as well which makes it convenient for farmers.

Yogesh, a Class 12 student, adds, “To understand the grassroots impact of the innovation, we did a proper survey with 200 farmers. After using the same, we have received 95% positive feedback from them! This has given us a big boost and we hope this can transform the lives of hundreds of farmers in the future.”