Soledad Navarro and Sebastian Rojas, two mechatronic civil engineering students from the University of Talca, created an innovative project that promotes mechanization in the onion harvesting process.
In 2016, they applied to the Corfo regional entrepreneurship support program and were awarded 20 million pesos to co-finance the development of the project's prototype. In 2018, they managed to build the VP5000 machine, which allows collecting the onion without damaging it in the process.
According to Soledad Navarro, "We had to try the mechanisms that we created many times and had a limited period of time to deliver results to Corfo. In addition, the onion harvest season is very short. In fact, this year we carried out the final technical tests of the process during the last half of February."
During the execution of the project they had the sponsorship of Copeval SA, to ensure the administrative, technical, and financial compliance of the project.
They also created the Crescat SpA company, which offers different services to train farmers and achieve optimal use of machinery by improving processes through engineering, to continue adding value and to strengthen regional competitiveness.
Difficulties in the process
After compiling information in the field, the young students identified that there was a shortage of machinery for harvesting this vegetable and the labor used to harvest this crop was very expensive.
"The options that currently exist in the market are foreign and have a high cost, therefore, small or medium producers can't access them," Soledad Navarro said.
Source: cooperativa.cl