Techies take cloud computing to cows
Four employees of an IT giant quit job to help farmers increase organic milk production, reduce adulteration and pilferage
Four employees of Wipro quit over the last few months to devote their time to prop up the floundering dairy sector. They are in the final stages of readying the prototype of a cloud-based computing system to help farmers increase organic milk production, cut adulteration and pilferage, and track reproduction cycles of cattle in a scientific way. The system involves the use of sensors, including some on the body of cows. The data collected will be used to increase the quality and quantity of milk produced, and let vets know the right time to artificially inseminate the cows.
“The timing is crucial to ensure that the cow’s non-productive lactating period is minimised,” said Ranjith Mukundan, one of the co-founders of Stellapps Technologies. The others are Praveen Nale, Venkatesh Seshasayee and Ravishankar Shiroor.
“Productivity of milk in India is one of the lowest vis-à-vis the developed world. The technology to increase it are too expensive. Besides, it is meant for large herd sizes (like 1,000 animals). In India, the average herd size is very small. We are trying to bring these sophisticated technologies within the reach of the Indian farming community,” said Ranjith.
Venkat, who looks after the requirements of one of Stellapps’ customer Akshayakalpa, said, “Milk adulteration and pilferage is a major problem. We provide the means to address these problems. We can also help milk producers guarantee organic quality of the product.”
Stellapps’s dairy solution is being mentored by Dr G N Srinivasa Reddy, founder of Akshayakalpa and member of Stellapps’ advisory board.
Ranjith said, “We are planning to collaborate with co-operative societies and milk unions across India. But, even a small farmer with two cows can benefit from our technology.”
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