Yanglem Brajamani Singh (36) is a passionate young farmer who has come up with a solution to the strenuous, time-consuming work of harvesting and washing taro (yam) manually by making a taro harvester cum washer. He is engaged in farming all year round, but during his free time, he likes to modify and innovate things. 

The taro harvesting is usually done manually using a spade, taking a lot of time and requiring several labourers. It takes days for harvest, and the farmers end up spending a lot of money on the wages of the labourers. 

The Taro harvester is a tractor-mounted implement driven by PTO. During the operation, the soil is dug up by a steel blade digger, and corms of taro are released backwards by the continuous movement of the conveyor. Using this implement, a farmer can harvest 1 hectare in 10 hours engaging three manpower including tractor driver while it takes over a week to harvest the same area by employing five labourers. The washer is a cylindrically shaped body attached to the tractor after harvesting to wash the yam.

The machine has reduced drudgery significantly as compared to manual taro harvesting and washing operations as squatting and bending positions are required during manual harvesting.Brajamani has received a lot of enquiries from the neighbouring districts too, but he is not commercially manufacturing the harvester. He operates on a service model and charges hourly during the harvesting period. He plans to improve the machine further and sell it commercially. He also has plans to make a paddy harvester and thresher.