BENGALURU / DHARWAD: Price fluctuation is a sensitive factor in determining farmers’ plight, but when technology waits in the wings to offer a solution that can be profitable as well as prevent wastage of the produce, there are no takers for it to reap its benefits.
This is precisely what is happening even as the drastic fall in onion prices is putting the farming community in a quandary as they are unable to achieve profit margins.
A sharp fall in demand has drastically brought down onion prices in Karnataka from Rs 5,000-6,000 per quintal to the latest average market price of Rs 1,700 per quintal, while the average retail price ranges from Rs 8 to Rs 18 per Kg. Experts have blamed this on the fall in exports to neighbouring countries due to drop in demand, while the demand has shrunk in other Indian states - especially Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal and Kerala -- due to them growing their own onions.
Onion farmers in Karnataka spend about Rs 50,000 per acre per yield of about 30-40 quintals, but with the prices falling, they will be unable to achieve profit margins, heaping miseries on them. Farmers send nearly 2,000 bags of onions each on an average to other states by this time of the year, but they’re unable to send even half of it due to demand crash. With low prices threatening to persist in the coming days, those without storage options are postponing sales, and risking wastage.
Now, turn to the potential saviour - the technology that Indian Institute of Science (IISc) developed.
‘Driers can help farmers turn surplus produce into profit’
It’s a a vegetable/fruit drier, that involves the concept of drying, powdering fruits and vegetables and storing them in a packaged form with shelf-lives of six months to a year. It was first conceived in early 1990s by IISc’s then Application of Science & Technology for Rural Areas (ASTRA), but upgraded in 2013 by ASTRA’s new avatar, Centre for Sustainable Technologies (CST), as biomass fuel driers. IISc transferred the technology to NGOs and self-help groups to popularise and adopt it. But it is yet to reach the farmers.
Experts familiar with the technology said the drier does not just save the produce from being wasted when discarded by frustrated farmers reeling from glut and drastic price falls. It also helps farming womenfolk set up sustainable businesses by adopting the drying technology and marketing the dried produce to rural and even urban markets with hefty profit margins.
This means agrarian families - mainly in rural areas - no longer need to throw away their produce due to factors like crash in demand or prices. Instead, they can use the driers to reap financial benefits by drying the produce and selling through markets over longer periods of time.
Shamsundar Subbarao, head of department, Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies (CREST), National Institute of Engineering (NIE), Mysuru, said not many farmers are aware, but those who know are adopting it. The concept of drying, powdering and storing food items is not new, he pointed out.
“It is a traditional practice passed down generations. Now modern technologies are being used. Like, instead of drying directly under the sun, solar energy-enabled inductions, heaters and machines are being used. Through the institute (NIE), dehydration and packaging of fruits and vegetables is being popularised, which can be easily rehydrated or even preserved,” he said.
Svati Bhogle, Chairperson, Technology Informatics Design Endeavour (TIDE), an NGO empowering women, said farmers prefer solar technology where constant attention is not required or a solar-biomass hybrid drier that can work even after sunset.
“Consumers should also start demanding, which will help create a market as farmers would find it difficult to sell it directly,” she said.