Indian startup tackles undernourishment with fruit & veg dehydrators
S4S Technologies (Science for Society) provided solar conduction dryers, which dehydrate vegetables and fruits, to 230 rural women in 17 of Maharashtra’s villages. Another group comprising 200 women from villages in Thane and Aurangabad — called the control group — were not provided with the dryers.
“Undernourishment is attributed to poverty, which results in poor ability to buy food and maintain dietary variations, food shortage across off-seasons when agri-products are not available on farms, gender inequality as women are not equipped to buy and supply nutritional food, and poor feeding practices that rely on staple food as major component of diet.” said Vaibhav Tidke, chief executive officer, S4S.
The women were trained to use the dryers to dehydrate onions, fenugreek, spinach, dried ginger, mangoes and papaya. These dehydrated products were integrated in their daily diet, especially during the lean season — January to June — when fresh produce is not available for consumption.
The fact that vegetables were ready to be consumed during the lean season increased the Dietary Diversity Score — amount of nutrients in one’s diet — in the experimental group by 37% more than the control group.
In addition to consuming the dried product and preventing wastage, the women also sold the surplus. Of the 200 women in the experimental group, 105 sold the surplus dehydrated food — approximately 20,000kg of agricultural products.
source: hindustantimes.com
