A former IT engineer has developed a pest trapper powered by sunlight.
Pests and insects are enemies of crops. Conventional pest management has relied on pesticides and insecticides which besides involving expenses, leave their residue on fruits and vegetables leading to harmful effects on those who consume them. Mr. Abdul Kadhar, who was trained and worked as an engineer, has developed a ‘Solar Pest Trapper’ that is environment-friendly and has not much recurring cost.
Kadhar had earlier worked as an IT engineer with several firms in Germany, Saudi Arabia and with Honeywell in Bengaluru, altogether for 11 years. He quit the job due to health issues two years ago and took up residence in Puducherry and began exploring prospects for entrepreneurship. He told Islamic Voice that greenery and agricultural fields attracted him. He came face to face with pest problem while learning vermicompost at the Auroville. This made him study the behavior of pests and urged him to develop a solution. He studied a lot of borers, moths, wasps, nymphs, hoppers, lead folder insects in fields of paddy, sugarcane, vegetables, and orchards of mango, coconut tea, pomegranate, jasmine etc in Tamil Nadu villages around Puducherry.
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‘Solar Pest Trapper’ was the outcome of three and half years of constant effort. He set up a small unit named Sustainable Agriculture Farming System at Puducherry. Kadhar’s device uses an 18 by 18 centimeter solar panel which is just 27 millimeter thickness and weighs about four kilos. Priced at Rs. 2,625 a piece, this 43-year old entrepreneur has field-tested the device for its effectiveness at several locations. It is a low 3-watt and 6 volt panel and is capable of killing a minimum of 100 pests a day.
Doing away with Pesticides
According to Kadhar, the device begins operating immediately after dusk when the pests become active and gets automatically switched off around midnight after five hours of operation. The system is operated by a microcontroller chip. The device uses LED light with low ultraviolet emission. By installing one device in a 10-acre field, it traps at least 10 adult pests a day. By doing away with use of chemicals and pesticides, it helps the farmers avoid harmful effects as well as the spares them the recurring cost of pesticides. It can bring down the pest management by 50 per cent. Kadhar says if it can kill one adult insect a day, it translates into checking reproduction of 300 of its progeny in a year.
Kadhar has approached Annamalai Agricultural University and the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore for testing of his device in trial farms maintained by them in two seasons. He invested around Rs. 28 lakhs for his studies, research and development of the device and has sold several such devices to farmers. He says the device is easily portable across the farms.
Abdul Kadhar is looking for retail networks that can promote his innovative solar based device. He can be contacted at: 0-9488591915, landline: 0413-2271915, or email: [email protected]. Website: www.safsorganic.com.
(As told to Maqbool Ahmed Siraj)
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