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Reducing onion wastage by 25% using IoT technology
India produces a mind-boggling 2 crore metric tons of onions annually. An estimated 70% of this produce is stored in warehouses for 6-8 months. Unfortunately, incorrect storage practices lead to a whopping 30-40% wastage due to the crop’s physiological weight loss, sprouting, and rotting.
Born and brought up in Lasalgaon, home to Asia’s largest onion market, Kalyani Shinde wanted to address these challenges, faced by thousands of farmers across India.
Coming from a farming background, her first-hand knowledge and understanding of the problem led her to work towards designing a solution during her college days. She started her entrepreneurial journey by setting up Godaam Innovations, a social enterprise that has developed a viable technology-based solution to enable farmers to monitor crop health and ensure timely market distribution.
Know more about Godaam Innovation’s work or reach out to them here www.godaaminnovations.com or follow their journey on Facebook!
Converting traditional onion warehouses into smart warehouses
A computer engineer by qualification, Kalyani leveraged her skills to develop an IoT-based device that enables real-time climate monitoring, identifies early wastage in warehouses, and alerts the farmer based on the analyzed data.
कल्याणी का IoT- आधारित डिवाइस गोदामों में शुरुआती wastage की पहचान करता है, और रियल टाइम डेटा के आधार पर किसान को alert करता है।
“We entered the market with the notion that there would be resistance from the farmers to adopt any technology. However, farmers want technology. They understand the value, however, it is important to design according to their needs and build to exactly address those challenges.” shares Kalyani
परंपरागत रूप से, किसान प्याज की विशिष्ट गंध से सड़ने की पहचान करते हैं। हालांकि, इस स्तर पर, फसल पहले से ही 30% क्षतिग्रस्त है। प्याज उद्योग में भी जवाबदेही का अभाव है क्योंकि सरकार जमीन पर उपलब्ध उपज की गुणवत्ता या मात्रा से अनजान है। यह अपव्यय उपभोक्ताओं के लिए उच्च कीमतों का परिणाम है, जबकि मांग कभी बढ़ती जा रही है।
गोडाम की तकनीक की मदद से, एक किसान अब सड़ांध को कम से कम 4% के रूप में पहचान सकता है जो उन्हें अपव्यय को कम करने और फसल को बाजार में जल्दी बेचने में सक्षम बनाता है। एक किसान जो लगभग 20-25% की फसल बर्बादी करता है, उसे अब संग्रहीत फसल का केवल 5% ही खोना होगा।
Designing the Future of Storage
The next big step for Kalyani lies in her collaboration with Tata Steel and Sahyadri Farms. Together, they are creating ‘smart community warehouses’ to reduce wastage of stored produce.
“We are working on designing future storage facilities. If the current onion waste reduction is 40%, we want to bring it down to 5%” says Kalyani.
Right from design & structure to protocols of storage, micro-climatic conditions and material, Kalyani and her team are focussing on optimizing onion storage with minimal or no wastage. They are going to focus on the onion market for the next 3-4 years before taking their technology to address the challenges in other markets such as poultry. Kalyani is dedicated to solving most of the challenges faced by the onion industry - before & after harvest, converting waste to revenue, establishing a circular economy for sustainability and reduced environmental impact.
ऐसे देश के लिए जिसके लाखों निवासी अपने रोजमर्रा के पोषण के लिए प्याज पर निर्भर हैं, कल्याणी और उनकी टीम के प्रयास भरोसेमंद आपूर्ति सुनिश्चित करने के लिए एक लंबा रास्ता तय करने वाले हैं।