A young onion farmer from Vijayapura district has designed a shed that increases the shelf life of onions by at least two months.
Rajkumar Aski (23), onion farmer from Hachal village of Sindgi taluk, has designed a simple yet effective onion storage shed with the help of social media and the guidance of the Horticulture Department. Cultivating onion on his six acre land for decades, Aski was always worried about his onion losing shelf life in less than two months.
“To harvest onions, like other farmers, we would construct a traditional shed using tur hay, at a cost of ₹ 20,000-₹ 30,000. The disadvantage was that we had to build such a shed every year,” he said.
While browsing social networking sites, he found a scientifically designed onion shed. Then, he decided to replicate it in his farm.
He said that he made only minor changes in the traditional design to provide ample ventilation.
“I lifted the platform up by about 2 ft above ground level using wooden planks to store onions. The shed is covered with mesh and the structure was made permanent,” he said.
Aski spent around ₹ 1.4 lakh on the shed that can store 900 bags of onions. The Horticulture Department later gave him a subsidy of ₹ 87,000. He said that the new design extended the shelf life of onions by at least two months.
“In the old shed, we saw wastage of nearly 40 % as moisture caused the onions to rot. In the new shed, wastage has been reduced to 5 %,” he said.
He said that while his uncle sold 900 bags of onion for ₹ 4.5 lakh, he sold the same quantity for ₹ 7.5 lakh after storing the onions for an extra two months when the market picked up.
Acknowledging that Aski has designed a farmer-friendly onion shed, Santosh Inamdar, Deputy Director, Horticulture Department, said that as farmers in Vijayapura cultivate onions mainly in the kharif season, they face the problem of moisture that damages the crop.
“The new system will help farmers store onions for longer periods. We are now promoting the design among other farmers,” he said.
Onion farmers can contact Aski on Ph: 8861585694 for details.