A small village in Karnataka is home to farmer Raghav Gowda, who for decades has been milking cows with great difficulty.

Raghav finally decided to take matters into his own hands.

He started work on a manual milking machine. Many years of hard work and 15 models later, in 2002, Raghav became the proud innovator of a machine, which is now called the Milkmaster.

"The automatic milking machine you get in the market costs more then Rs 90,000. This is cheaper. It is also convenient," said Raghav.

Vacuum pressure

The entire apparatus is made of stainless steel and is easy to use. Though it simply works on a piston and lever principle, it is the elaborate design of the Milkmaster that makes it special.

The hand lever is cranked repeatedly. This creates vacuum pressure in a small suction unit that is attached to the udders.

Milk from the cow then gets deposited in a can through transparent tubes, which help monitor the movement of milk.

An experienced farmer would know when to stop working the lever. The entire unit can be detached and all the parts of the milkmaster can be cleaned separately for hygiene purposes.

Commercial manufacturing

Raghav Gowda was awarded National Innovation Foundation's state prize a few years back.

The innovator is now planning to commercially manufacture the Milkmaster.

"If this innovation is commercially manufactured then the idea will no longer be beneficial to farmers. It will be expensive for them. That is why I want to make these for farmers myself," he said.

There are two models of the Milkmaster available right now that are priced between Rs 6000-10,000.

Raghav has got a few orders from neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and with business picking up, he is not complaining.

Raghav now spends most of his time upgrading the innovation. He is currently working on an automated version of the Milkmaster.