To reduce the burden of manual labour in apple cultivation, an apple grower in Kotkhai, Shimla district, Sunil Chauhan turned to technology, installing a petrol-run monorail system to transport plucked apples from his orchard to the warehouse.
“The monorail can carry up to 500kg. It can transport apple boxes, crates, manure, fertilisers, tools and many other things required for farm operations,” Chauhan said, adding that the successful trial run of the monorail was conducted two days ago. Now orchardists from nearby farms are visiting him to see the monorail.
The system runs on a track laid at a slight elevation in the orchard and, according to Chauhan, can operate efficiently on slopes of up to 45 degrees. He is currently conducting trial runs and says the system is working smoothly.
Chauhan imported the monorail from China at a cost of around ₹4.20 lakh. Chauhan said that the mechanisation is becoming increasingly important for apple growers in Himachal Pradesh, where orchard management remains largely dependent on manual labour, including workers from Nepal. The growing scarcity of workers and rising labour costs have added to the challenges faced by growers.
He has laid 100 metres of track in his orchard and plans to extend it by another 200 metres at different locations and in different directions. “It will reduce my dependence on labour to a large extent,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}He has laid 100 metres of track in his orchard and plans to extend it by another 200 metres at different locations and in different directions. “It will reduce my dependence on labour to a large extent,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}