In Indian cooking, every savory dish starts with onions. Onions are used in virtually every type of cuisine and cooking in the world. They are very versatile and can be used cooked, fresh or as a garnish. An Indian origin 19-year-old farmer Rohit Patel from Madhya Pradesh, India have developed a new kind of low-cost onion storage facility. Currently, Rohit is doing his graduation in Business Administration from a local college.
Onion prices are rising day by day. Although, the absence of abundant storage facilities, the harvest perishes at the onset of monsoon. Lately for almost four months every year, onion has sold for Rs 60 to 80 a kilo. It almost taking the essential pungent vegetable off the table.
Before inventing this approach, Rohit’s family was unable to save their onion crop. Proper storage facilities, built mostly by the government, are hard to come by in Madhya Pradesh. After harvesting, they have often been forced to sell onions for 50 paisa a kilo. But after inventing this novel onion storage, they were able to earn profit of 5 lakhs.
This onion storage is 600 sq ft structure. It can store more than 500 quintals of onions. It has base consist of a wire mesh 6 inches above the ground. There are 6 exhaust fans for cooling. The fans keep the onions dry and cool. They also prevent onions from rotting.
Rohit said, “I have developed this warehouse after four years of research.”
“Now we can sell onions for Rs 3 a kg and our input cost is Rs 5 a kg. But if we can store it for longer, we will get Rs 15-20 a kg during the monsoon. Last year, we made a profit of Rs 5 lakh,” he added.
The storage facility costs is cheaper than commercially available storage facilities. It has cost around of Rs 25000 only.
Rohit’s father Chatur Singh Patel said, “I m always interested in agriculture field. Rohit was helping in since he was in Class 7. Additionally, he is a keen observer and got the idea from the traditional way of storing onion on ground under a ceiling fan.”
Now, this cost-effective and excellent way of storing onions attracting other farmers.