40-50 Lakh tonnes of onions go to waste every year. The reason for this wastage is the lack of storage facilities. Currently, India is dealing with a shortage of about five lakh tonnes of onions. Due to this shortage, the onion prices go up every year.
Except for the months of July, August, and September, onions are grown in various parts of India effectively all year and can be purchased fresh.
Onions are stored in warehouses and supplied in order to maintain a consistent supply during these three months of scarcity. Traditionally, they are stored in large amounts in oxygenated warehouses, where losses are in a significant range of up to 20-40% due to poor pre-harvest and post-harvest conventions.
To address this problem, many agritech companies are coming forward with their innovative storage startup ideas. One such agritech startup company is Godaam Innovations Private Limited. They are working towards the goal of reducing onion crop wastage by 100%.
As of now, they have come up with a solution of reducing onion crop wastage by 20-25%.
How does their technology work?
The team of Godaam Innovations connects with farmers with warehouses and installs their devices in those warehouses. Before installation, they also retrofit the warehouses and improve ventilation in them. The device is IoT-based and has sensors. IoT-based devices can connect wirelessly and they can also transmit data. These can also be monitored and controlled easily. After the installation of these devices, the Godaam team monitors the warehouses. When the rotting begins in the onion, some gases are emitted by it. These gases along with micro-climatic conditions of the warehouse are picked up by the sensors of these devices, which helps the farmers identify rotting. The farmers are notified by text messages which they can customize in their preferred languages. After being informed, the farmers can take necessary actions such as removing rotten crops or selling them in the market.
Cost And Durability
The farmers can enjoy this facility by paying just Rs. 10000 for 5 to 6 tonnes of onions. The device is also long-lasting and can monitor the crops for up to 5 to 6 years. This device is user-friendly, cost-effective, and can reduce wastage of onion crops by 20-25%.
