Telangana innovator is on a mission to make lives of farmers easier

Mahipal Chary’s innovations are a boon for tillers who could earlier not afford expensive farm equipment

HYDERABAD: Empathising with farmers' sufferings due to the lack of suitable and affordable equipment in the Indian market, Kadavendi Mahipal Chary, a 42-year-old grassroots innovator and entrepreneur from Parkal is providing solutions with his innovations like mini-cultivator, mini-tractor, power weeder and hydraulic lifts.

Chary says, “I couldn’t complete my 10th board exams and used to work as a bike mechanic. Later, I returned to my village and started cultivating my 2-acre land passed on to me by my father.”During that time, I didn’t have enough income to afford cows for ploughing or pay labourers. I started repairing tractors and gradually became proficient. In 2011, I started designing the mini-cultivator which replaces manpower and dependence on oxen,” he says.

The innovator reveals that his first attempt, in which he used an auto-rickshaw engine, was unsuccessful. “Later I bought a China-made engine from Hyderabad, made some modifications and the mini-cultivator worked. I then started producing more,” he says. Encouraged by the response, Chary is now manufacturing cultivators by assembling engines from Kolhapur, material and gears from Hyderabad. “We have 12 workers in our company – Varun Engineering Works – and have so far sold around 4,000 cultivators.

Before Covid-19, we used to export them across the country but now we are selling them only in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh,” Chary says. The 22-inch cultivator is mounted with a 4 hp engine which enables farmers to use it in places where crops are planted over 22 inches apart. Accelerator is provided in the left hand grip and the machine is manoeuvred by two hands with the handle provided.
On demand from farmers, Mahipal made a version with a 5 hp engine which can be used for light ploughing in fruit gardens and other dryland farms.

He says: “On average, a farmer can plough 2-3 acres of land with one-litre diesel in three hours. The machine costs just Rs 50,000 while the cows used for the same purpose cost a minimum of Rs 1 lakh and require maintenance.”

Chary’s other popular innovations include a power weeder (he has sold 20 units), and a mini-tractor which is connected to a trolley and can haul up to one tonne, while the tractor hydraulic lift can lift 500 kg.
Chary was bestowed with the President’s Award in 2015 and the National Entrepreneurship award in 2018 for his innovations.