MoU signed to commercialise TNAU’s power weeder

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Premier Power Equipment and Products Pvt. Ltd., Coimbatore, to commercialise the power-operated weeder for the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) method.The MoU was signed by A.Rajkumar, Managing Director of the firm, and P.Murugesa Boopathy, Vice-Chancellor of TNAU, here recently.

Talking about the utility of the weeder, P. Subbian, Director, Agri-Business Development, TNAU, said weeding and aerating inter-row space using cono-weeder is an essential requirement for SRI. The manually operated Japanese rotary weeder and cono-weeder are popular, but they are slow and resulted in shoulder pain. The power-operated weeder will help in overcoming this problem.

The weeder, weighing 17 kg, is easy to operate and can weed 0.75 to one hectare a day.The MoU will enable the firm to manufacture large quantities of the weeder for use by farmers of Tamil Nadu as well as other rice growing states.

Signing the memorandum, the Vice-Chancellor urged entrepreneurs to come forward to commercialise TNAU’s implements – around 120 of them – so that small farmers can use them to reduce dependency on labour which is becoming scarce these days.

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