Mumbai School Students Help Marathwada Farmers For Storage Facility

The students of Bombay Scottish School in Mahim have taken the initiative to help the farmers in Marathawada. The idea is to help the farmers to setup the storage so that they can store their production for the period of one week.

Image source: Hindustan Times

So the group of 55 students from the class Xth worked out to set up a basic brick and mortar storage facility, designed by a startup from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. The target is to raise the amount of Rs 16 lakh which can help 100 farmers in Marathawada to set up the Subjee Cooler, a cooling unit designed by Rukart Technologies. While a unit can be set up at Rs 30,000, many farmers do not have the funds at their disposal owing to the effects of the lockdown on the markets, said Vikas Jha, founder of Rukart.

Vikas Jha speaking to Hindustan Times said: “If we could find finance for half the price, farmers were willing to pay the other half,” he added.

The students found out about the plight of the farmers during a workshop at school with a crowd-funding platform—Fuel a Dream. Each student then decided to raise Rs 30,000 to be able to help two farmers set up Subjee Coolers. However, many students have already exceeded their goals and the funds will be used to help more farmers. “I honestly went into the campaign thinking I’d barely touch the goal of Rs 30000 and I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome. I’m currently at Rs 1,29,100. The first day, I texted and called close friends and relatives about the campaign,” said 14-year-old Auroni Gupta, who claimed that most contributions came through social media. So far the students have raised Rs13.87 lakh.

About Subjee Cooler
The Subjee Cooler works on the principle of evaporative cooling and does not require any utilities except watering once a day.

According to Jha, the cooling chamber temperature is lesser than the ambient temperature by a margin of 5-15°C (depends on ambient relative humidity) and maintains the high relative humidity of above 85% – 90% inside the cooling chamber. The low temperature and high humidity inside the chamber preserve the vegetable crop (non-tuber) for five to eight days.

“Rukart and a Pune-based non-profit Swayam Sikashan Prayog, got in touch with us about the farmers in Marathwada. We have been doing workshops with students across the country and the students at Bombay Scottish showed interest. That’s how the initiative took off,” said Ranganath Thota, founder of Fuel a Dream, who teaches crowdfunding as a skill to school students.

Image source: yourstory.com

Article source: Hindustan Times

Related article: This Agritech startup make Subjee Cooler help farmers store produce and sell at a better price