No cattle but farmers in Dharwad plough on with a popular fix

BENGALURU: Farmers in a village in North Karnataka, who sold their cattle to cope with drought, have embraced a new solution to till their land. They are using a bicycle-inspired plough to avoid the expense of buying new farm animals and machinery like a tractor.
The contraption has proved quite handy in the wake of back-to-back crises: North Karnataka has suffered the double blow of a drought and a deluge in a short interval.Over 1,400 cattle deaths have been reported in the region, including 214 in Dharwad district.
Hanumanthappa Balesoor, 58, who lives in Kusugal village, Dharwad, introduced fellow farmers to the new plough.
He owns 10 acres of dry farmland and used a pair of oxen to plough it before drought swept large parts of the state. He sold the animals for Rs 25,000 to provide for his family. But a few months later, he found himself in another bind as he prepared the field for sowing.
"I had no cattle for the work. Getting a tractor costs Rs 600 per acre. I can't afford it," Hannumanthappa said. Fuel costs extra.
He then remembered a farmer in Bagalkot district using a bicycle wheel to drag a tiller in a field. Hanumanthappa assembled a similar contraption at a cost of around Rs 2,000. "It requires no maintenance or fuel," he said.
Hanumanthappa has fitted two sharp wooden pieces to a cycle wheel, which can be pulled with a rope and steered with a long handlebar. The wooden pieces act as ploughs. His 20-year-old son, Mahanthesh, helps him use the apparatus.
"It takes three hours to plough one acre," Hanumanthappa said. Mahanthesh said it was hard labour, but they didn't have another option.
The father and son take joy in the fact that other villagers borrow their contraption. "I don't charge them anything," Hanumanthappa said.
BY Srinivas, director of the state agricultural department, told TOI that at the moment, there were no new schemes for flood-affected areas, but farmers could use existing government programmes to get equipment, seeds and manure. Ploughing equipment, he added, can be hired at a nominal cost.
Hanumanthappa claimed influential farmers had first dibs on support provided by the government.