The Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI) is an NGO working towards development, standardisation and popularisation of innovative technologies with special emphasis on making the traditional rural, businesses more profitable and on generating new business opportunities which would enhance the employment potential in rural areas through sustainable utilisation of available natural resources.

Our ultimate aim is to help the rural poor earn sufficient income from their local environment in a sustainable manner, so that the need to migrate to the cities shall be eliminated.

We have standardised several appropriate technologies that hold a great promise for establishment of new rural enterprises as described below. Several such enterprises have actually come up and are enjoying considerable success.

Farming on Permanent Raised Beds
Farming on raised beds gives very good yield due to proper drainage of water, proper supply of fertilizers and micro nutrients, adequate supply of oxygen to the roots as well as due to absence of weeds, accumulated salt, etc. This cultivation technique can also prove profitable in the case of floriculture or plantations of medicinal plants. It is possible to produce fodder using the permanent raised beds.

Tissue cultured Plantlets
Micro-propagated plantlets of ginger, turmeric, sugarcane, potato, etc. are costly. But the cost can be reduced by multiplying the ex vitro plantlets for one or two generations under field or nursery conditions. It is imperative to keep these plants disease free and therefore it is more profitable to use the raised bed technique.

Bamboo Plantation
The bamboo species Dendrocalamus strictus is in great demand in India for making ladders, shelters, baskets, partitions, etc. Bamboo poles can be used for making supports for vines, erecting green houses as well as in rural housing as an alternative to structural elements of steel. This kind of replacement has a double advantage because weight for weight bamboo is six times as strong as steel but costs only 5% of the price. A bamboo plantation starts yielding 10,000 poles per acre from the 6/7th year.

Nursery
If one uses the branch of a flowering or fruiting tree as a scion, the grafted plant starts flowering in an year or two. It is possible to get flowering or fruiting trees just 1m in height. Such grafts of tree species offer a business opportunity without competition.

Shampoo Powder from Acacia
The pods of Australian acacia (Acacia auriculiformis) contain saponin which can be used to make shampoo powder. The powder can be used for washing hair, woollen and silk clothing, jewellery, etc.

Use of Dried Sugarcane Leaves
After harvesting sugarcane, one ends up with 4-5 tons of dried sugarcane leaves per acre. Generally they are burnt off in situ. We have developed a technique for converting this waste biomass into compost. It is also possible to convert the biomass into char and make fuel briquettes for domestic cookstoves.

Improved Cookstoves
We have developed a number of improved designs for domestic as well as community cookstoves working on wood and biomass as fuel, by introducing a tunnel and a fire grate below the fuel so as to optimise the air flow into the fuel chamber. Because of the design improvements, the stoves give the double benefit of minimal smoke emission and 50% less fuel consumption. We impart training to stove users and entrepreneurs wishing to start a business of making and selling these improved cookstoves.

ARTI provides training in all the above technologies. For advice, consultancy, training or material, contact as below.

Priyadarshini Karve,
Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI),
6, Koyna Apartments, Survey No. 133, Kothrud, Pune 411 029, India.
Ph: +91 0212-342217/590348/233258.
E-mail: gpk@physics.unipune.ernet.in