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Using the Sun to Fight Food Waste And Stretch Yields
In rural India, an agri-tech company has created solar powered food dehydrators that are saving millions of tons of food and CO2 emissions.
Social & Lifestyle
Farming households in rural India are earning extra money for their food that goes unsold by putting it through solar food dehydrators. In a country where intense heat can spoil food within days of harvesting, it can also keep it safe for months.
Tens of thousands of tons of food in India goes to waste every year, often because it doesn’t look appealing enough, or because there’s no access to refrigeration to keep it fresh.
Normally this would be simply thrown away, comporting a loss for those who often can’t afford it, but now women in Maharashta in the west of India are being hired to operate specially-designed solar conduction dyers that suck every detectable trace of moisture out of the food within just four hours.
Excess produce like tomatoes, garlic, onions, ginger, coconut, chilies, and corn are then turned into easy-to-use products and sold to 1.100+ food and beverage industry customers of the solar dryer’s creator, S4S, or, Science 4 Society.
S4S’s solar conduction dryers also preserve 20-50% more nutrients than other methods, while reducing emissions from refrigeration and food waste.
They claim they’ve prevented 350,000 metric tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere, and 40,000 tons of food waste through the use of these dryers, which have employed 800 women across the state, many of whom, as the BBC reports, would have a difficult time finding regular work.
It’s also creating a real raise in the average wages in these rural households, as much as 110% from previous methods, but unlike government support, it hasn’t relied on raising tax money.