[ad_1]
The Zayed Sustainability Prize, the UAE’s pioneering global award to recognise excellence in sustainability, empowers India-based startup Science for Society (S4S) Technologies to further help farmers and rural women reduce food waste and increase their incomes.
Founded in 2008, S4S Technologies recognized that a large number of farmers’ products were wasted because they lacked the means to preserve their harvests, had no experience in selling on a larger scale, and lacked the technical knowledge of modern farming practices. To address this challenge, the startup has created a novel solution — a solar-powered food dehydrator — that converts food waste into non-perishable food ingredients that can be sold.
“What brings us together is addressing challenges such as food waste, smallholder poverty and gender inequality among rural women farmers,” said co-founder Nidhi Pant in honor of International Food Loss and Waste Awareness Day.
Using patented solar conduction dryer technology, farmers can avoid food waste and create new revenue streams. The technology requires no electricity and provides sustainable results while avoiding problems caused by prolonged power outages.
The company’s technology currently prevents approximately 22,500 tons of agricultural products from being wasted each year and 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
“We started by providing farmers with technology solutions to reduce food waste, but quickly realized they were not marketers. Providing market connections and technology was necessary to integrate the buyback of processed products,” Pant noted.
Awards affect S4S projects
Earlier this year, S4S Technologies received the Zayed Sustainability Award in the Food category and received $600,000 to expand the scope and scale of its sustainability solutions.
While the startup has won several awards for its eco-friendly solutions, winning the Zayed Sustainability Award has had a major impact on its projects.
“The support of the Zayed Sustainability Prize has helped us expand our farmer base to include 60,000 smallholder farmers and 1,200 women micro-entrepreneurs. It has also helped us strengthen our value chain and farmer awareness, training and capacity building ,” Pant emphasized.
After receiving a cash award of $600,000, the SME also digitized its value chain. Digital tools mean better pricing and more guidance on quality standards. Following the award, S4S Technologies has expanded its product portfolio from fruits and vegetables to pulses, grains, spices and coconuts.
Empowering rural women
According to official figures from the Indian government, rural women make up 33 percent of the agricultural workforce. S4S Technologies places women at the center of its operations and creates opportunities for them. One example of the company’s success is Chayya, a young woman with a physical disability from a remote village on the outskirts of Aurangabad, Maharashtra state. She works on a farm, but life is difficult and her income is barely sufficient.
Chayya’s life soon changed when S4S Technologies began recruiting local women in her village for a food-saving program. She got better earnings, higher work standards, more dignity at work, and greater respect from society. Seeing her thriving, other village women are encouraged to join in agricultural processing.
“The most profound moment since I started this journey has been how our interventions have changed the lives of our women entrepreneurs. When I see how our entrepreneurs are better decision makers – both at the family level and At the community level, I am satisfied. With more and more income, they can support their daughter’s education and no longer need loans from unscrupulous loan sharks to support children and the elderly,” Pant said. “In the next five years, our goal is to have more than 10,000 women become micro-entrepreneurs and increase their profits by 50 to 200 percent, and work with 3 million farmers to reduce post-harvest losses and provide adequate market linkages .”
The company aims to save up to 175,000 tons of food annually and prevent 1.2 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
“This can be achieved by preventing food waste, reducing logistics, and switching to clean energy for food processing. If we stop wasting food, we can reduce global emissions by 8%, free up land and resources, and save enough food to Feed yourself 2 billion hungry people,” Pant added.
Copyright © 2022 Khaleej Times. all rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndicate information).
[ad_2]
Source link