Chhavi Sharma - Farmers who have been forced to work on small and unproductive plots of land, or who are increasingly facing droughts and rising temperatures brought about by climate change, are finding that solar can provide them with a whole new way of processing, preserving, and storing their crops, , solar power, farming community, renewable energy
A woman beetroot farmer with the S4S team. Photo: Special Arrangement/THE HINDU
S4S is promoting solar dehydration as a means to empower women farmers and reduce food waste
Life is not easy for the ‘ugly ducklings’ of the agricultural world. For all the perfectly shaped fruits and vegetables that we buy from the green grocers, there are thousands left on their stalks to rot unharvested in the field simply because they do not meet the aesthetic criteria of retailers.
Mumbai-based foodtech innovator Science 4 Society (S4S) Technologies has been working to cut down on this waste by promoting solar dehydration as a way to preserve such produce. In the wake of the lockdown, the company, founded in 2014 by young entrepreneur Vaibhav Tidke along with collegemates Ganesh Bhere, Tushar Gaware, Shital Somani, Ashwin Pawade, Nidhi Pant and Swapnil Kokate, has empowered 2,700 women farmers and 200 micro-entrepreneurs near Aurangabad by training them in dehydration of natural produce.