Karen blixen, Museum in Nairobi, Kenya

For promoting solar dehydration as a means to empower small farmers and reduce food wastageVAIBHAV PARWATAurangabad, May 11:The city based Startup 'Science For Society' (S4S) Technologies has won the prestigious ‘Cisco Agri Challenge’ for promoting solar dehydration as a means to empower small farmers and reduce food wastage. The startup has won Rs 1 crore grants, leaving behind 25 semi-finalist and 8 finalists from all over India.Started by a son of a farmer from Beed, Vaibhav Tidke, CEO and Co-founder, a PhD from the Mumbai’s Institute of Chemical Technology, in 2013 along with his team Nidhi Pant, Swapnil Kokate, Ganesh Bhere, Tushar Gaware, Shital Somani Kasat and Ashwin Pawde, the Startup has now grown into an successful venture. Tidke was well-versed with several of the agricultural challenges including food wastage and lack of proper storage facilities. Hence, he along with peers, decided to develop a Solar Conduction Dryer (SCD) that would increase the shelf life of vegetables to about six months. “We spent two years working on the design of the machine, to make it easy to use for women farmers. After their constant feedback, we came up with the SCD that can easily be assembled and dismantled. The dryer works on a renewable source of energy and incorporates an innovative patented food drying technology, which primarily helps in extending the shelf life of the farm produce without the need for adding any external preservatives. Not just fruits and vegetables, the innovative equipment can also be utilized for meat, seafood and spices.About the solar dryerThe SCD is a 3X3 ft machine which can be assembled and dismantled, and can be kept in an open area, such as a terrace or backyard. It does not require any maintenance and allows food preservation at a 40 percent lesser cost than other industrial dryers.SCD installed in several countriesThe SCD has been installed in 1200 places in about nine countries including the United States, France, Jamaica, Nepal, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Bangladesh and India. There are collection centres in 120 villages and have distributed thousands of machines with nearly 800 processing units to women farmers. The centres are located in Marathwada, Orissa and Tamil Nadu.About the challengeCisco and The Nudge Institute in partnership with the office of the principal scientific advisor, announced the challenge with an aim to mobilize agri startups working towards income generation and sustainable livelihoods for small and marginal farmers. The challenge runs for 18 months and is aimed at mobilizing start-ups to innovate solutions that can positively impact 10 million lives by 2025.

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