3 friends from Udaipur use innovation for farming breakthrough, receive PM's praise

The founders of super-absorbent-polymer (SAP), which not only has the capability to "reduce the irrigation need by 40% but also to reduce the bio-waste", received accolades by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the recently held Rising Rajasthan Summit.

- Senjuti Sengupta

JAIPUR: The SAP has doubled the annual crops produce in 50,000 farmers across 10 countries and also made its place in top 100 start-up list in Forbes last month, and won the best environment friendly agriculture start-up award in G20 summit.

In 2014, father of Narayan Lal Gurjar (26) had lost his corn corps produced in five bigha land in Rajsamand's Keradi village after a months long draught. "I was in school that time. One day, my father came and said, 'Beta, kuchh karna hai bade ho kar, to ye paani ka taklif meeta dena' (When you grow old you need to do something to resolve the water issue). This line changed my life. I knew I have to make a product that can reduce the regular irrigation need and ensures that the corps survive even in a minimum rain," he said.

This led him to start five-year-long research to come up with a solution of saving crops when there is no water. When he started his research in his village, he also realised that the government's irrigation schemes are expensive for the small farmers despite the subsidies while the water absorbent polymers for the farming fields, available in the market, are also made of chemicals that harmful for the crops in long run.

After a few months of research, Gurjar made a powder made of orange and banana pills which appears to be a better supplementary of the chemical polymers. "The peptin present in the fruit pills are extremely quick in absorbing the water. This super-absorbent-polymer (SAP) is not only capable of reducing the irrigation need by 40% but had also helped reducing the bio-waste," said Gurjar.

"When I gave a packet of this powder to my father, I saw the best smile on his face in my life," he added.