Will help onion farmers to reduce wastage by half

MUMBAI, 4 August 2020: Nest-In, Tata Steel’s modular construction solutions brand, has launched a revolutionary onion storage solution ‘AgroNest’ that is aimed at reducing spoilage of the onions to half of its current level.

This is a first-of-its-kind smart warehouse for onions developed with scientific backing and latest innovation and technology. The lack of scientific storage practices, non-standard designs and poor quality of material used for onion storage leads to over 40% loss of the produce inside the warehouse.

With unpredictable weather and climate changes and the recent challenges of transport and movement, farmers face multiple challenges with respect to storage and maintaining a healthy shelf life for their produce. Over the years, the farmers have suffered losses in quality and quantity of their produce, as the onion industry lacks proper storage facilities.

Speaking on this, P. Anand, Chief, Services & Solutions, Tata Steel said, “We strongly believe achieving self-reliance and self-sustainability in agriculture is critical to making India atmanirbhar. Inspired by this mission, our expert professionals are developing customised solutions for the agriculture sector. Climate change and environmental conditions affect the shelf-life of the farmers produce and lack of proper storage facilities lead to huge losses. We understood the problem here and our teams crafted a solution that is long-term and practical. We are committed to creating innovative products and solutions for our customers and enable a better tomorrow.”

Given that the agricultural sector supports 70 percent of India’s population and contributes to 50 percent of the GDP, the government is rapidly investing in Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs). Tata Steel’s Innovent identified this white space in the market to build solutions in agri-infrastructure.

Taking a step forward to achieve this objective and support the backbone of the Indian economy, Tata Steel’s Nest-In and Innovent teams have developed Agronest, a smart warehouse solution with a unique structural design that maximises air flow, is spacious thus making it conducive for longer and safer storage of onions, and provides a cost-effective environment control to ensure minimal wastage.

The warehouse has sensors installed for monitoring temperature, humidity and gas, thereby enabling early detection of spoilage of the produce. Components from 4 major Tata Steel brands - Tata Structura, Tata Tiscon, Tata Wiron and coated sheets from Tata Steel BSL, have been used in the solution, promising quality and structural longevity to the customers.