Blog: Success Story of Local Tunnel Drier for Small Scale Processing Entrepreneurship in India

dheeraj 1In rural areas of Rajasthan, the farmers grow fruit and vegetables, which are highly perishable and need to be sold in the market immediately . When the production is high, the farmers are forced to sell the material at very low price, thereby incurring great losses. These losses can be minimized by dehydrating fruits and vegetables as the average daily duration of bright sunshine in western Rajasthan is 8- 9 hours.

Keeping the above facts in mind KVK, CAZRI organized many on and off campus trainings with practical demonstration of low cost processing technologies to farmers of Pali district .Also the interested farmers were taken to different agricultural institutes where they can learn by doing. Mr. Madan Lal, a progressive farmer of Pali district was greatly inspired by the trainings and planned to take the trainings to his field.

Today he has established himself as a successful entrepreneur using self made tunnel solar drier for drying. He had shown that a successful enterprise can be run based on this principle which can easily utilize the surplus produce facing the seasonal glut. In off seasons the farmer can sell the dried products at higher price, also the products can be stored for longer time in less volume. The enterprise consists of different aonla (typical Indian fruit) products including juice, squash, candy, powder, pickle, dry aonla, churan tablets, preserve and dehydrated vegetables viz. spinach, okra, tomato, ginger, chillies and carrots.

by Singh Dheeraj, India