Sunshine for Nadia farmers

KOLKATA : No more distress selling for Nadia farmers, or the perpetual anxiety over market price of agro-produce. GIZ, Germany, in association with Switch On, is implanting a project, ONergy Solar to set up a hybrid micro cold storage (SMCS) for farmers at Betna in the Nadia district.
The solar cold storage was inaugurated by state technical education minister Ujwal Biswas on Tuesday.He said, “Such solutions are extremely critical for the farmers and should be scaled up across the state.”
Other dignitaries present on the occasion included SDO Hanskhali, Arnab Ray, Hari Natarajan of GIZ and representatives from IFFCO, DRCSC, Wilthungerlife. The solar micro cold storage project is supported by GIZ IGENRE, the country’s first.
The solar micro cold storage is a solar hybrid, modular low-energy, low-cost cold storage unit that is capable of cooling vegetables up to 9 tonnes, for about 10 days. It used low cost technology (30 % less expensive than traditional systems) also using less energy than conventional cooling methods.
SMCS is encapsulated by a structure built with natural material, inspired from Dochala, a two-sided sloped roof prevalent in Bengal in the 1860s – a perfect mix of new technology and natural practices. The system will be operated by ON Farm, a farming produce company, run and managed by local farmers. ON Farm was set up by Switch ON in December 2013 to empower farmers and find holistic solutions to the challenges of agriculture. Switch ON is supporting ON Farm to manage their own supply chain operations and eliminating middlemen, thereby increasing their profit, using pick-up vehicles. ON Farm currently deals with 2,000 kg produce a day and caters to wholesale markets in Bengal and Jharkhand. ON Farm will now be able to store produce in the SMCS and take advantage on the fluctuations in prices and selling when the market is up.
Addressing the problems of irrigation, solar water pump sets are set up in the community to provide an optimal solution that is technologically superior, cheaper in the long run and environment friendly. The water is provided for irrigation on a “pay as you go” model to a network of farmers. The project aims to support the farmers to minimize the cultivation cost and improve their income. The entire system will pay for itself within three years.
Farmers are also trained in sustainable agriculture practices and organic farming. They have been trained to prepare organic inputs and exposure visits to different organic farm. Switch ON has also set up an integrated organic farm at TapovON where farmers can witness an organic farm, kitchen garden, mixed orchard and organic inputs.
“The project aims to combat the challenge of food, energy and water security – with a very strong impact on livelihood and income generation,” says Ekta Jaju of Switch ON. The project will look at a holistic solution, she said. “This project will help build a sustainable and resilient farming community. Upon the success of this pilot project, we will scale this solution across Bengal, Odhisha and Jharkhand and areas we where we are currently operating,” said project coordinator Suman Paul.