Young experts come up with project to grow cheap fodder

A team of young people has been making efforts to grow cattle fodder which will be cheaper in cost.
Anil Gopi, an ITI student from Bengaluru, initiated an agricultural project called ‘Terra Neeru’ in Bajpe with the support of his friends. A small farm of 8x10 sq ft was used to cultivate organic vegetables, which was successful in the locality.

Team

After completing his ITI studies two years ago, Gopi moved to Bengaluru and started working with the team ‘Project DEFY (Design Education For Yourself)’. The team is made up of Arvind Badrinarayanan (biologist), Abhinav Dey (mechanical engineer), Prabhu Govindarajan (electrical engineer) and Somshekhar (student and designer).

Anil Gopi, the centre manager, is a creative maker consultant at Free Design and a volunteer at Nasscom crowd project and Workbench project. Being an ardent movie maker, he travels often.

Abhinav, one of the project team members, is a product of IIT Vellore, and has obtained IDIN (International Design Innovation Network) fellowship from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Combination

The project initiated by them is based on the concept of aquaphonics (Agriculture and Aquaculture combined).

An artificial greenhouse comprising a 4x4-square foot modular box, a huge fish tank, a unit for water recycling and several play palettes as medium for plant growth, was set up by the team at Kaggalipura, Kanakapura road in Bengaluru Rural district.

“The recycled water from the fish tank and the fish droppings are used for the growth of corn and palipia grass, used as cattle fodder. Our objective is to make cattle fodder damn cheap for farmers”, Gopi explained.

“The working model has fetched two fellowships for the team – Plus Trust fellowship and Ashoka, a US fellowship. There are plans to extend the project in a large scale,” Anil Gopi said and added that the project will help to provide cheap access to cattle fodder for farmers.