Subhash Narayan Kakade
Efficient crop spraying solutions
Subhash Narayan Kakade, Founder, Kakade Agro Equipment, Tandulwadi Malshiras Solapur, Maharashtra, explains about crop spraying, which is a key part of modern agriculture and must be done carefully to avoid damaging the environment. Efficient spraying solutions use improved technology to deliver the right amount of chemicals in the right place. This reduces chemical use and improves crop health. As a result, farmers can grow stronger crops while protecting the land.
We are manufacturers of advanced agricultural machinery, including sprayers, silage harvesters, rotovators, and many other products. We, 3 brothers who are engineers, started our company in 2015 as per the suggestions from our father. We have been successfully running this unit since then. We are focusing on producing sprayers to suit the requirements of the farmers in the orchards. We all know that agricultural crop production involves many field operations, and one such operation is spraying. For example, to control attacks by pests, weeds, fungi, we have to spray different types of fungicides, pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides. This is usually done manually, and some farmers use sprayers for the purpose. There are different types of sprayers now on the market. Of course, there are some difficulties in operating the sprayer machines, such as the machine not working properly. So to avoid all these problems, we need to select the proper sprayer machine.
There are a few points we need to consider in selecting the right machinery for the specific crops. Traditionally, farmers used knapsack sprayers, and they used sprayers by hand. They were also dusting dry powder and all. These exercises are dangerous, and the farmers were not getting the best results from those spraying machines. Today, farm operations are getting difficult due to various factors such as natural calamities, labour issues, and other things which are hindering our getting better results even if we use sprayers. We have designed our machines so that they can be operated by attaching them behind the tractors. These are tractor-operated sprayers, which means the sprayer is using the power sources from the tractor. There are other sources to run the sprayers, such as the electric motor, but it involves labour. Using the sprayer attached to the tractor is labour conserving and works out economically. Here, only one person can do the job and spray a huge land area within a short time. This is highly economical.
We have a 600-litre-per-hour sprayer called Toofan Mist Blower. There is a red-coloured tank in it, which is the main liquid tank. We need to fill water and chemicals, such as insecticide or fungicide liquids, to spray on the plant body. We need to connect it to the tractor; the power is transmitted through the propeller shaft to the pump. The pump is used to pressurise the liquid to the nozzle. There is a stainless steel body with brass nozzles fixed to it. These are used to spray the liquid. There is a small opening, we can pressurise the liquid through that space, the liquid is converted into small droplets, and the extra air flow is given through the vent. With high air velocity, the spray is atomised and sprayed onto the plant. We can use this for mango, coconut, and custard apple trees. The liquid can reach up to 35 to 40 feet high trees, as these trees cannot be reached manually for spraying. Our 600-litre machines can be used for such trees. These machines have a fan connected to the backside of the gearbox. The fan creates high-pressure air to atomise the spray liquid into small droplets to be sprayed. There is also a yellow tank, which is the backup tank provided at the base, as we may need 200 litre water per acre, and this water can be used in case of emergencies to fill the main tank and save time. We have a hand-washing tank separately as we are dealing with poisonous liquids, and we should keep our hands clean. Each part of the sprayer has a controller unit to control the pressure of the liquid, the direction, and the flow of the liquid. We can switch on and off when spraying the liquid and have control over it. The high-pressure pump we use is a diaphragm pump to pressurise the liquid. The yellow cap on the sprayer is the main filter to filter the liquid from the main tank to give to the pumping unit, which is connected to the control wall, and from there to the nozzles for making the operation easy.
This machine also works out very economically as it has a life of about 10 years or more. There are many machines in the market, and the one we manufacture is based on the model imported from Italy. We are selling the machine of the same quality as the imported one at Rs. 3.5 lakhs, as our machines are designed to suit Indian conditions. India’s farmers are mostly small landholding farmers, and so it should be affordable to them. The 200 and 250 litre machine can be mounted on the tractor. The tail type machine comes in 600, 800, 1000, and 2000 litres. We are mainly selling them in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh for spraying on mango and pomegranate trees.
We are also working on another model, which will be a low-volume sprayer to be of great use to grape farmers. Less quantity of liquid will be required per acre, and such machines are not now manufactured in India, as they are imported from Italy. We want to bring this model into operation soon to help the Indian field conditions. The sprayer will be brought to market within a few months.
We do help the farmers to get subsidies. We do the documentation area-wise. We are connected to eSeva Kendras in various locations, and they assist in filling out the forms. In this way, we support the farmers by associating ourselves with eSeva Kendras. We are taking feedback at regular intervals from the farmers and customers about our products so that we can make necessary changes in the machines.
Saving time, labour, and money
The main problem in Indian farming is the labour cost. The only way to save the labour cost is to go for the mechanisation of the farm. Till now, any operation in the farm consumed time, was delayed, resulting in loss of production, and economic loss. That is why Indian farmers are willing to switch over to mechanisation on their farms. For example, when we spray manually, it takes one full day to complete spraying one acre of land, and a minimum of two people are required. But when we use a machine, we can cover one acre within 20 minutes with the help of one person only. We can note the saving of time, labour, and cost. We also get timely operations. Results are good. When we do it manually, we cover every plant, and the machine covers the whole body of the plants within a short time to get better results.
End-to-end support for farmers
We have a huge dealer network in many places and a technical team to give service to the farmers in the field. We also have trained technicians to serve the farmers after sales of the machine. We give on-field sales service. We have maintenance and on-field repair services also. When the farmers call us for help, we send our technicians to the field to repair the machines.
We can arrange for a demonstration, and we can give training to the students. When farmers are ready, we can arrange for the training at any time. When the farmers are unable to come to us, we go to the farmers and their groups to give the training.
The machines, when imported, cost a huge amount to the farmers. So, we have taken up the manufacturing of the same to suit our conditions and requirements. This way, the farmers can save money by purchasing our products. Not all farmers can afford to spend such a huge amount of money on machinery.
Personalised farmer support
I do not see the farmers facing any problem. All farmers do not have the same types of problems. While some may have financial problems, some may have problems operating the machinery. So, we give training and demonstrations of the products to the farmers. We deliver the machines to the farmers’ fields, give some training, and provide technical details for maintaining the operating conditions. By going personally to the farmers’ fields, we can easily understand their problems and requirements. There are many farmers who use our machines. They get the best result when they use our spraying machines and get the best results. The yield increases, there is a quality improvement, and they get higher returns when they use our machines.
Financial assistance for farmers
Since there are government subsidies for farm machinery, we sell our products at subsidised prices. The farmer will be eligible to get different subsidies from the government, also. The farmers can get up to Rs. 1.25 lakhs from the central and state governments. We have a collaboration with a few financial companies. So, we help the farmers to get loans from these finance companies to buy this machine.
Protective equipment and safety
We have to take safety measures when we use automated spraying systems, such as sprayers, rotovators, thresher machines, etc. They have sharp, rotating parts, and we are using them to spray poisonous liquids that may affect human health. At the time of selling the sprayers, we give a protective kit that should be used when spraying. We supply a coat, a mask, helmets, hand gloves, and shoes that should be used during the process to maintain safety. We should know about the machine parts and work accordingly. We also provide some protective covers when we use machines with rotating parts so that the operators do not get injured or affected.
Modern marketing strategies
Today, the marketing strategies are totally different. We cannot sit in the office and expect the customers to come to the office and buy from us. The competition is too much now. So we have to connect with the farmers, go to their fields, show our machines, give training by running the machines, give live demos, and in this way, the farmers will be attracted. They will try to get more information from us, know about the quality of the product, and they will buy the machines. This is our strategy. We also give training regularly, participate in the exhibitions, and using our demonstration van, we can go to any place to exhibit our products. We also provide after-sales support. In this way, we gain the support and confidence of the farmers to buy our products. We supply in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Smart machinery for farmers
We are currently working on a silage harvester machine, a low sprayer machine, and a fertiliser trolley, which are being imported now. We are focusing on the machinery needed for orchards. The crops from the orchards are high-return ones, and so farmers do not hesitate much to buy our machines. They have been facing issues like labour and cost. Few companies are manufacturing this machinery, and farmers cannot afford the huge amount of money involved. While the silage harvester costs R. 15 lakhs, we charge only Rs. 7 to 8 lakhs. The taxes and other hidden costs make the machinery expensive in India when imported. We expect the price to be low and affordable to farmers when we manufacture them.
Contact details
Subhash Narayan Kakade. M. Tech Agril. Engg
Founder, Kakade Agro Equipment, Tandulwadi Malshiras Solapur, Maharashtra
M: 7709685151
E: kakadetoofanblowers@gmail.com
Efficient crop spraying solutions
Subhash Narayan Kakade, Founder, Kakade Agro Equipment, Tandulwadi Malshiras Solapur, Maharashtra, explains about crop spraying, which is a key part of modern agriculture and must be done carefully to avoid damaging the environment. Efficient spraying solutions use improved technology to deliver the right amount of chemicals in the right place. This reduces chemical use and improves crop health. As a result, farmers can grow stronger crops while protecting the land.
We are manufacturers of advanced agricultural machinery, including sprayers, silage harvesters, rotovators, and many other products. We, 3 brothers who are engineers, started our company in 2015 as per the suggestions from our father. We have been successfully running this unit since then. We are focusing on producing sprayers to suit the requirements of the farmers in the orchards. We all know that agricultural crop production involves many field operations, and one such operation is spraying. For example, to control attacks by pests, weeds, fungi, we have to spray different types of fungicides, pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides. This is usually done manually, and some farmers use sprayers for the purpose. There are different types of sprayers now on the market. Of course, there are some difficulties in operating the sprayer machines, such as the machine not working properly. So to avoid all these problems, we need to select the proper sprayer machine.
There are a few points we need to consider in selecting the right machinery for the specific crops. Traditionally, farmers used knapsack sprayers, and they used sprayers by hand. They were also dusting dry powder and all. These exercises are dangerous, and the farmers were not getting the best results from those spraying machines. Today, farm operations are getting difficult due to various factors such as natural calamities, labour issues, and other things which are hindering our getting better results even if we use sprayers. We have designed our machines so that they can be operated by attaching them behind the tractors. These are tractor-operated sprayers, which means the sprayer is using the power sources from the tractor. There are other sources to run the sprayers, such as the electric motor, but it involves labour. Using the sprayer attached to the tractor is labour conserving and works out economically. Here, only one person can do the job and spray a huge land area within a short time. This is highly economical.
We have a 600-litre-per-hour sprayer called Toofan Mist Blower. There is a red-coloured tank in it, which is the main liquid tank. We need to fill water and chemicals, such as insecticide or fungicide liquids, to spray on the plant body. We need to connect it to the tractor; the power is transmitted through the propeller shaft to the pump. The pump is used to pressurise the liquid to the nozzle. There is a stainless steel body with brass nozzles fixed to it. These are used to spray the liquid. There is a small opening, we can pressurise the liquid through that space, the liquid is converted into small droplets, and the extra air flow is given through the vent. With high air velocity, the spray is atomised and sprayed onto the plant. We can use this for mango, coconut, and custard apple trees. The liquid can reach up to 35 to 40 feet high trees, as these trees cannot be reached manually for spraying. Our 600-litre machines can be used for such trees. These machines have a fan connected to the backside of the gearbox. The fan creates high-pressure air to atomise the spray liquid into small droplets to be sprayed. There is also a yellow tank, which is the backup tank provided at the base, as we may need 200 litre water per acre, and this water can be used in case of emergencies to fill the main tank and save time. We have a hand-washing tank separately as we are dealing with poisonous liquids, and we should keep our hands clean. Each part of the sprayer has a controller unit to control the pressure of the liquid, the direction, and the flow of the liquid. We can switch on and off when spraying the liquid and have control over it. The high-pressure pump we use is a diaphragm pump to pressurise the liquid. The yellow cap on the sprayer is the main filter to filter the liquid from the main tank to give to the pumping unit, which is connected to the control wall, and from there to the nozzles for making the operation easy.
This machine also works out very economically as it has a life of about 10 years or more. There are many machines in the market, and the one we manufacture is based on the model imported from Italy. We are selling the machine of the same quality as the imported one at Rs. 3.5 lakhs, as our machines are designed to suit Indian conditions. India’s farmers are mostly small landholding farmers, and so it should be affordable to them. The 200 and 250 litre machine can be mounted on the tractor. The tail type machine comes in 600, 800, 1000, and 2000 litres. We are mainly selling them in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh for spraying on mango and pomegranate trees.
We are also working on another model, which will be a low-volume sprayer to be of great use to grape farmers. Less quantity of liquid will be required per acre, and such machines are not now manufactured in India, as they are imported from Italy. We want to bring this model into operation soon to help the Indian field conditions. The sprayer will be brought to market within a few months.
We do help the farmers to get subsidies. We do the documentation area-wise. We are connected to eSeva Kendras in various locations, and they assist in filling out the forms. In this way, we support the farmers by associating ourselves with eSeva Kendras. We are taking feedback at regular intervals from the farmers and customers about our products so that we can make necessary changes in the machines.
Saving time, labour, and money
The main problem in Indian farming is the labour cost. The only way to save the labour cost is to go for the mechanisation of the farm. Till now, any operation in the farm consumed time, was delayed, resulting in loss of production, and economic loss. That is why Indian farmers are willing to switch over to mechanisation on their farms. For example, when we spray manually, it takes one full day to complete spraying one acre of land, and a minimum of two people are required. But when we use a machine, we can cover one acre within 20 minutes with the help of one person only. We can note the saving of time, labour, and cost. We also get timely operations. Results are good. When we do it manually, we cover every plant, and the machine covers the whole body of the plants within a short time to get better results.
End-to-end support for farmers
We have a huge dealer network in many places and a technical team to give service to the farmers in the field. We also have trained technicians to serve the farmers after sales of the machine. We give on-field sales service. We have maintenance and on-field repair services also. When the farmers call us for help, we send our technicians to the field to repair the machines.
We can arrange for a demonstration, and we can give training to the students. When farmers are ready, we can arrange for the training at any time. When the farmers are unable to come to us, we go to the farmers and their groups to give the training.
The machines, when imported, cost a huge amount to the farmers. So, we have taken up the manufacturing of the same to suit our conditions and requirements. This way, the farmers can save money by purchasing our products. Not all farmers can afford to spend such a huge amount of money on machinery.
Personalised farmer support
I do not see the farmers facing any problem. All farmers do not have the same types of problems. While some may have financial problems, some may have problems operating the machinery. So, we give training and demonstrations of the products to the farmers. We deliver the machines to the farmers’ fields, give some training, and provide technical details for maintaining the operating conditions. By going personally to the farmers’ fields, we can easily understand their problems and requirements. There are many farmers who use our machines. They get the best result when they use our spraying machines and get the best results. The yield increases, there is a quality improvement, and they get higher returns when they use our machines.
Financial assistance for farmers
Since there are government subsidies for farm machinery, we sell our products at subsidised prices. The farmer will be eligible to get different subsidies from the government, also. The farmers can get up to Rs. 1.25 lakhs from the central and state governments. We have a collaboration with a few financial companies. So, we help the farmers to get loans from these finance companies to buy this machine.
Protective equipment and safety
We have to take safety measures when we use automated spraying systems, such as sprayers, rotovators, thresher machines, etc. They have sharp, rotating parts, and we are using them to spray poisonous liquids that may affect human health. At the time of selling the sprayers, we give a protective kit that should be used when spraying. We supply a coat, a mask, helmets, hand gloves, and shoes that should be used during the process to maintain safety. We should know about the machine parts and work accordingly. We also provide some protective covers when we use machines with rotating parts so that the operators do not get injured or affected.
Modern marketing strategies
Today, the marketing strategies are totally different. We cannot sit in the office and expect the customers to come to the office and buy from us. The competition is too much now. So we have to connect with the farmers, go to their fields, show our machines, give training by running the machines, give live demos, and in this way, the farmers will be attracted. They will try to get more information from us, know about the quality of the product, and they will buy the machines. This is our strategy. We also give training regularly, participate in the exhibitions, and using our demonstration van, we can go to any place to exhibit our products. We also provide after-sales support. In this way, we gain the support and confidence of the farmers to buy our products. We supply in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Smart machinery for farmers
We are currently working on a silage harvester machine, a low sprayer machine, and a fertiliser trolley, which are being imported now. We are focusing on the machinery needed for orchards. The crops from the orchards are high-return ones, and so farmers do not hesitate much to buy our machines. They have been facing issues like labour and cost. Few companies are manufacturing this machinery, and farmers cannot afford the huge amount of money involved. While the silage harvester costs R. 15 lakhs, we charge only Rs. 7 to 8 lakhs. The taxes and other hidden costs make the machinery expensive in India when imported. We expect the price to be low and affordable to farmers when we manufacture them.
Contact details
Subhash Narayan Kakade. M. Tech Agril. Engg
Founder, Kakade Agro Equipment, Tandulwadi Malshiras Solapur, Maharashtra
M: 7709685151
E: kakadetoofanblowers@gmail.com