Kisan Kavach: India’s indigenously made farming safety Anti-Pesticide Bodysuit

Kisan Kavach has been launched by Dr Jitendra Singh, a Union Minister of State for Science and Technology. This is an important step as there is the creation of an anti-pesticide bodysuit for farmers that they would use when handling with dangerous pesticides. The Kisan Kavach was developed by the DBT's BRIC Instem research team together with Sepio Health Pvt. Ltd. It contains fabric technology that decomposes the pesticide as soon as it comes in contact with it and thus has the potential to help farmers who suffer from breathing problems, loss of eyesight and even polygenic disease. The Kisan Kavach suit can be re-used and washed and would cost around 4000 rupees, and has a life span of a year. Dr. Jitendra Singh said that as the production ramps up, Kisan Kavach would become more cheaper and easily available to farmers all over India. This initiative inspired by Prime Minister Modi aims to use technology and science together to empower farmers and help with sustainable farming while making it climate-friendly.

Overview

• Kisan Kavach bodysuit is useful to protect farmers from lethal pesticide’s impact which cause respiratory diseases, vision impairment, or death.

• Development: Developed by BRIC-inStem, Bangalore, in coordination with Sepio Health Pvt. Ltd., kindly sponsored by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT).

Key Features

• Cleaning, disassembly, assembly, non-disposable, and has a proven use of more than a year.

• Hi-tech fabrics neutralize pesticide residues as soon as they come into contact with these fabrics.

• They are available for ₹4,000 now, and the company aims at bringing down the cost through mass production later on.

Scientific Basis

• Fabric utilizes nucleophile to cotton which allows one of the pesticide to be inactivated through nucleophilic hydrolysis. An empirical study that has been published in Nature Communications.

Significance

• This covers an important safety need in agriculture especially for the farmers who are 65% of India’s population.

• This advocates for sustainable and climate-smart farming.

Launch Event: The first set of suits were made available to farmers at the Launch event that was graced by Dr. Rajesh S. Gokhale, Dr. Maneesha Inamdar and Dr. Alka Sharma.

Government Focus

• In sync with the self-image of the current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi who believes in using science & technology for the betterment of the society.

• Aligns with the government’s BioE3 policies and establishes a correlation with the exponential growth to India’s bio-economy dreams of a $300 billion bio-economy industry.

Conclusion

Kisan Kavach is a game-changer for Indian farmers, offering protection from harmful pesticides. Developed with cutting-edge fabric technology, it enhances safety and sustainability. As production scales, the cost will decrease, making it more accessible. This initiative supports the government's vision of climate-smart farming and bolsters India's bio-economy.