Ecozen Solutions

Keeping vegetables and fruits cool without costing the planet

noreply@blogger.com (Brainitec) — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 10:28:00 +0000

Agriculture combined with Technology is a tale of buoyancy and innovation. Leveraging technology and building solutions to aboriginal issues through the right amount of persistence while exploring the less traveled road is helping to pull the agriculture sector out of the dark while also unsnarling hidden treasures in the lush green fields. A new wave of budding entrepreneurs and emerging startups are leading the way to disrupt the way perishables are handled across the value chain.

Over the past few decades, India has seen a steep growth in the production of perishable horticulture commodities having a limited shelf life but high in nutrition value. The technological advancements and improved scientific way of farming have contributed to the growth. Even though the production has increased there are issues of inflation, wastage of fresh produce, and demand-supply imbalances. The wastage is mainly due to ineffective post-harvest management.

Digitizing the supply chain of perishables will help reduce the farm wastage at the first mile, bring in price transparency and also help in improving the farmers’ income.

The system is portable and can be moved from one location to another with great ease; the idea of portability is to utilize the unit for different seasonal crops grown across different regions.

Empowering the lives of thousands of farmers

Ecozen has installed over 120 Ecofrost-solar cold room systems in India and has also exported to countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, Afghanistan and has recently entered the African market, impacting the lives of thousands of farmers by giving them the control over the price at which they sell the product while reducing the post-harvest losses.

Changing the Agri Landscape in Africa

noreply@blogger.com (Brainitec) — Mon, 22 Apr 2019 08:07:00 +0000

Africa is an agri lover’s dream with abundant uncultivated arable land roughly over half the global total; tropical climates that permit long growing seasons; young labor force and an expanding population that provides a ready market for the product consumption. Agricultural productivity remains far from developed world standards. Over 90% of agriculture depends on rainfall, with no artificial irrigation aid

Africa with more than 60% of its population living in the rural areas and depends on agriculture, by and large, expecting for the much-needed breakthrough in the present state. The continent with 1.166 billion people has more than 32% of its dependency for GDP that comes from the agriculture sector is struggling to revamp it modern ways of farming, technology and infrastructure.

However, African countries are yet to explore the opportunities to ensure sustainable food security and production.

Technology can disrupt the way African agriculture operates

Exploring Internet of Things (IOT) enabled smart irrigation devices that combine cloud based data analytics, GIS enabled technologies, and weather monitoring can help the small holders to know how and when to apply agri- inputs to get optimal results.

To work their land, farmers in Nigeria and Kenya can hire affordable tractors, all through their mobile phones. This is an example of how technology has already started disrupting agriculture in Africa

In Africa, almost 50 percent of the food produced is wasted; according to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the amount of food wasted on the continent is enough to feed 300 million people. The statistics of food production compared to hunger suggests that Africa produces more than enough to feed itself.

In most African countries where refrigeration technologies are not strong enough to withstand the harsh environment conditions, power grids are not capable of delivering reliable energy solar powered cooling can be a blessing.

Solar cold rooms with battery-less backup, like Ecofrost, can help farmers to keep their produce fresh even during power outage. Farmers using leaves to cover their crops in order to keep them cool, now have an option to keep their produce cool in a solar cold room. The temperature is maintained, and the farmers are also not forced to sell the produce at the end of the day at unfavourable prices.

The water pumps that run on solar energy has a huge scope to address this problem of irrigation and at the same time will provide an opportunity of year-round utilization of the same land area, thus increasing the production and will also eventually reduce Africa’s dependency on imports from other nations to some extent. Solar irrigation systems developed by Ecozen will definitely help to irrigate the African farmlands

Throughout Africa, technology led transformation is underway to transform the agriculture sector, and as technology becomes widely available, disruption in agriculture is all set to accelerate

Ecozen, a solar solution to cool storage in India | 2018 Ashden Award

noreply@blogger.com (Brainitec) — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 09:31:00 +0000

Benefits of cold storage room - Ecofrost

noreply@blogger.com (Brainitec) — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 13:53:00 +0000

Post Harvest Management Of Cut Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (Brainitec) — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 07:26:00 +0000

Flowers are one of the most beautiful natural forms out there. Flowers are a part of the lifecycle of fruit and a multitude of plants bear them. Some flowers, because of their visual appeal flowers are considered very high-value commodities and are traded locally and globally across the world every day. As important as it is to ensure that the right quality flowers are grown in abundance in a farmer’s land, it is equally important to ensure that they are handled the way they are supposed to be.
This post is about managing cut flowers like Rose, Gerbera, Chrysanthemum, Orchids etc. after they are harvested to ensure maximum post-harvest life of flowers. While it is important to manage each flower differently as they may have different needs, the basic principle behind managing their shelf life pretty much remains the same for all of them. For the purposes of this post, it must be noted that the life of a flower after it is harvested simply means the timespan until which the flowers overall strength, texture, color and visual appeal is maintained.

Post-harvest handling of the crop is the most important aspect in getting the right value for the crop. A typical post-harvest management practice of flowers comprises of the following stages:

Pre-cooling
De-leafing (applicable for some) and cleaning
Grading and sorting
Bunching
Packaging, storage and transport

The management practice followed decides the quality of the crops over time after harvest, right up-till final consumption. With the primary goal being preserving the quality of produce and avoiding losses, a good post-harvest management practice entails avoiding moisture losses, preserving nutrient value, prevent undesirable chemical changes and avoiding physical damage of the produce thereby preserving the aesthetic aspects that the end consumers pay for and care about.
The following are the reasons because of which flowers perish with time:

Metabolism and hence the breakdown of key ingredients
Inadequate nutrients and water supply after harvest as it is the plant that provides nutrition
Loss of water from petals, sepals, stem and other parts
A disease or diseases that occurred on the plant or after harvest
Exposure to undesirable chemicals/gases such as ethylene leading to reactions
The temperature and humidity conditions
Use of excess nitrogenous fertilizers (Urea)

In order to address each of the problems above, methods can be employed to delay the perishability. The following are the broad methods that can be used:

Maintaining surrounding temperatures at levels where metabolism/respiration slows down
Maintaining surrounding humidity to avoid loss of moisture from the parts
Usage of supplement such as sucrose for nutrient supply
Usage of preservatives that prevent microbial growth
Supply of water through the cut stem and materials to ensure that the stem conducts water

Harvesting
Harvesting should be done at the right stage, typically when the buds are 2/3rd of the size of fully open flower. It should be done during the coolest time of the day, generally early morning. Harvesting should be done by skilled labors with an intention to make close to 45-degree slant cuts to stems avoiding unnecessary abrasion. The harvested crops should be transferred immediately to water buckets containing the right preservatives.
Some of the recommended preservatives used in floriculture are:

Silver Thio Sulphate Solution
Chlorine
Citric Acid

Pre-cooling
It is required to bring down the temperature of the flowers down to a much lower temperature (around 10 degrees C but not below the recommended storage temperature) as soon as the harvesting is done. Buckets containing flower stems dipped in water or water solution of preservatives should be kept in a pre-cooling chamber.
One may prefer doing cleaning, de-leafing, and bunching after harvest and then pre-cool but it should be done as quickly as possible. Refer the points that follow to know more about them. This operation should be finished within six hours or less.
Pre-cooling removes field heat quickly, arresting the metabolism/respiration and extends the life of the flowers.

Cleaning and De-leafing
The leaves from the lower portion of the stem are removed. All infected leaves are also removed. Precautions should be taken to prevent crop injury during these processes.

Grading, Sorting and Bunching
The grading of flowers should be done according to the stem length, bud size, stem thickness and opening of flowers. Depending on the requirement of a buyer, appropriate thumb rules should be applied for these processes. The requirement of grading could be different in Indian market than what it is in say, Netherlands. Bent neck, thorn damage flowers, disease and pest affected and thick stem should be rejected.

Storage
Flowers should be stored in a temperature and humidity controlled environment at a specified set point. During the storage period, the flowers should be kept in vessels/buckets containing water or water solutions as previously mentioned. Depending on the variety, climatic condition of harvest and other physiological factors, flowers can be stored in cold storage for a period of over 15 days.
During the period, the water solution must be refreshed, generally every two days. In some cases, a slight slant cut should be given to the bottom of the stem at frequent intervals.
Given that they are perishables, care should be taken to inspect the quality of the flowers every day.

Packaging
The flower buds should be wrapped with white or brown paper wrappers. The size of the wrappers depends upon the bud size and number of flowers per bunch. Using rubber bands of 2 into 4 in sizes below the bud and at the b
ottom of the stem help in minimizing transport injury and are recommended.

Transportation
The size of the packing box varies with the stem length, number of stem and distance of the destination where the flowers are to be sold. A 3 to 5 ply corrugated paper box or a corrugated fibreboard box should be used for transportation. Bunches should be placed in a row along the length of box with bunches facing in opposite direction. The second layer is placed opposite to the first layer. The bunches should be packed tightly enough for them to not move undesirably during transport. The boxes should be secured with straps for proper packaging.
Loading should be done in shaded conditions and must be done as quickly as possible. Flowers should never be transferred from the cold room to direct sunlight during the process. It is recommended to maintain the storage temperature during transport in a reefer container. Though the flowers can also be transported without reefer containers, it must be noted that flowers have a limited vase life, generally 1–3 days before which they should be consumed after being taken out of the cold room.

We, at Ecozen, work with flower farmers using Ecofrost — our solar cold room solution, day in and day out, helping them get the best value out of their commodities by using the best possible post-harvest management practices.

Want to know more ? Please visit www.ecozensolutions.com or give a call at 18001217515

Keeping Foods Fresher, Longer Using the Sun | Devendra Gupta

noreply@blogger.com (Brainitec) — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 08:08:00 +0000

Ecozen, a solar solution to cool storage in India | 2018 Ashden Award

noreply@blogger.com (Brainitec) — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 07:09:00 +0000

Micro Cold Storage Proposal for UP by Devendra Gupta from Ecozen Solutions

noreply@blogger.com (Brainitec) — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 07:37:00 +0000

Ecozen Service Platform (ESP) - Solar Water Pump

noreply@blogger.com (Brainitec) — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 09:52:00 +0000

Pre-Cooling Changes the Face of Post-Harvest Management

noreply@blogger.com (Brainitec) — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 09:46:00 +0000

The delicious, fresh and nutritious fruits and vegetables which provide nourishment and balanced diet for millions of people around the world are possible through crop production, processing, and marketing.

The perishable nature of the fruits and vegetables is the major drawback in marketing the premium quality crops, hence post-harvest methods play an important role in maintaining the quality and extend the shelf life of the crops.

In agriculture, post-harvest management means handling the stage of crop production immediately following harvest which includes cooling, cleaning, sorting, and packaging. As soon as the crop is removed from the ground or separated from its parent plant, it begins to deteriorate.

The immediate removal of field heat through suitable pre-cooling methods is possible through postharvest treatments. It determines the final quality of the crop, whether it is sold for fresh consumption or will be stored for the processed food product.

Post-harvest management plays an important role in supplying the market with fresh, nutritious and quality produce. Once harvested, the fruits and vegetables are subject to the active process of senescence, which is also called biological aging or gradual deterioration of functional characteristics. Post-harvest management helps in keeping the product cool, to avoid the moisture loss and reduce the undesirable chemical changes thereby avoiding the physical damage bruising, spoilage etc. These practices make a huge difference.

The post harvest process includes pre-cooling methods such as -

The pre-cooling method is a vital post-harvest management practice that is required before the storage. The main purpose of cooling the crops is to remove the heat from the crops after they are harvested as there is a big difference in the room temperature and the harvested crop. Room cooling reduces the fruit respiration rate and increases the crop storage life. It also inhibits the growth of various microorganisms which reduces the possibility of post harvest diseases.

Room cooling – Room cooling is a simple pre-cooling method in which the crops are placed in a refrigerated room or container. This is a very slow process and recommended for the crops which decay slowly.

Hydro cooling – Hydro cooling is one of the most effective methods. It includes spraying or immersing the crops into cold water. This method not only keeps the crops cool, but also cleans them as various pathogens are sprayed with water. It needs adequate water quality and sanitation management. Some farmers use chemicals to prevent fungal diseases.

Vacuum cooling – In this method, the air is drawn out of the chamber; hence pressure allows evaporation of crop moisture. High amount of heat is required for water evaporation; this is highly effective for leafy vegetables

Forced air cooling – Forced air cooling method removes field heat by using fans that circulate cool air throughout the storage chamber at high speed. This method is effective for already packed fruits and berries etc.

Ice cooling – This method includes applying crushed or granulated ice into a storage container box. This method is mainly used during the transport of the crop.

Have a query on Post Harvest management? Call us at 1800 121 7515.

Once the crops are harvested the main responsibility of the farmer is to preserve the crop quality and pre-cooling is an effective practice that reduces the fruit respiration rate.

Solar Irrigation system: A rapidly growing technology in Agriculture industry

noreply@blogger.com (Brainitec) — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 13:37:00 +0000

Solar water pumping system India: A rapidly growing Agriculture technology

Safe and sustainable water system is a growing concern in every part of the world. Lately, India has emerged as one of the forerunners in the implementation of solar energy, by using the solar irrigation system in India. Not much before, the farmers were at mercy of the Rain Gods to irrigate their fields. The erratic electricity supply coupled with no rains added to the misery of farmers. With the rise of solar water pumping system, the dependency on the conventional sources of energy is reduced, thereby providing a clean and environment-friendly solution in the long run.

Bigger benefits, Lower Costs

Small and marginalized farmers are primarily dependent upon conventional energy methods of irrigation, incurring high costs. The off-grid rural areas, that are under served of power supply are also dependent on costly fuel driven pumps. With solar water pumps, the farmers can get sufficient water to irrigate their fields, even during power outage and incur lower operational costs compared to a diesel generator.

Pumping a new lease of life

The solar water pumps are beneficial in many ways as it requires low maintenance and are easy to install. No fuel costs or spills. Ecozen has come up with a platform called the Ecozen Service Platform. While the company provides a complete package of the solar irrigation system, the added advantage is the service platform that helps the system integrators or the resellers to quickly raise their complaints over this platform. Service technicians spend a lot of time going to the fields and end up making multiple visits in order to resolve the issue. A farmer also runs the risk of losing his crop due to system failure. Ecozen understood this pain point and like their innovative solar water pumping systems, they also came up with ESP (Ecozen Service Platform). The integrators can remotely diagnose the problem in the pumps installed by them, which will help them to save time and money on sending technicians multiple times and due to minimum system downtime, the farmers will also be able to save their crops.

Smart Farming starts with Smart Controller

Here’s the rub to make your pump run better. A controller helps your pump to run better, for more hours in a day. It also protects your pump from voltage and current spikes.

Ecotron is a solar pump controller developed by Ecozen. It is a smart controller with a plug and pump design. An easy to install product that enables the user to connect DC supply and motor output externally, thus reducing internal failures. It also enables over the air update through which any firmware can be updated remotely.

Want to know more about these products?

Call us at 18001217515 or visit www.ecozensolutions.com

Source From: http://bit.ly/2G5BvxZ

6 tips for preserving fruit or vegetables or flowers in cold storage

noreply@blogger.com (Brainitec) — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 13:30:00 +0000

We can save a lot of wastage of fruits, vegetables, and flowers by storing them in the right way.

Here are some helpful tips for preserving the fresh produce so that you can savor the goodness of the fruits and vegetable long after the harvest is over.

1.Know the temperature required for fruits and vegetables

Fruits and vegetables have a significant temperature below which the gradual deterioration starts like blackening and softening. Hence, it is important to store these fruits and vegetables above a certain temperature so that the post-harvest life can be increased and they remain fresh for a longer time. The optimum storage temperature for different vegetables and fruits varies Apples, berries and oranges remain in a good condition below 0 degrees and above -4 degrees. Cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, spinach, and broccoli can be stored at 0-degree temperature. Cucumber can be stored in a wide range of temperature that is 10 to -13 degrees.

2. Control Humidity – Humidity affects the produce quality. You can keep your produce in a good condition longer when you control the amount of humidity it is exposed to. The produce stored in a low humidity environment gets dehydrated and starts deteriorating Fruits and vegetables which are kept in highly humid place develop frost and start deteriorating. Hence a stable Humidity should be maintained for the freshness and long life of your produce.

Click here to know more about benefits to use cold storages for vegetables and fruits.

3. Prevent pests – Pests are always on the lookout for a quick meal. To prevent pests from getting into your product, you should seal every area of your cold storage tightly so as pests such as rats, cockroaches, bugs will not contaminate the produce with biological wastes.

4. Hygiene / clean environment – To protect fresh fruits and vegetables from contamination along with temperature and humidity, safety and hygiene are very crucial. It should be kept in a clean environment which is free from bacteria and other harmful organisms. For the safety of your produce hygiene should be the first priority.

5. Store fruit and vegetable separately – Many fruits emit a chemical called ethylene as they ripen, this can speed up the ripening process, many times this chemical sprayed on fruits and vegetables to ripe them faster. Too much of ethylene can lead to loss of chlorophyll, which shows yellowness of leaves when exposed to these chemicals. Hence the best practice is to keep high-ethylene and gas-emitting fruits apart from the other produce, to increase the life of your fruits and vegetables

6. Check the storage regularly – Checking the Storage regularly to monitor it maintains constant temperature throughout the cold store so that if there are any refrigeration issues that can be identified and spoilage of the produce can be prevented on time. Nowadays the Data logging systems are placed in the storage which automatically records the temperature and alert us about any fluctuation.

Source From: http://bit.ly/2S95v2y

Agriculture Technology: Solar Irrigation System & renewable Energy Trends

noreply@blogger.com (Brainitec) — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 13:15:00 +0000

Green technology refers to environmentally friendly technology based on its production process. It means energy production that is less harmful to the environment than the more traditional way of generating energy. It is grown quickly as people have become aware of their detrimental effects on the environment which includes global warming and also the greenhouse effect.
Due to global warming fears and increasing scarcity of natural resources green technology is getting a good response from the market. Agricultural green technology includes Energy generated from solar panels, solar water pumps, Solar cold storage etc.

Ecotron started with three friends from IIT Kharagpur mechanical engineering students Devendra Gupta, Prateek Singhal and Vivek Pande who interned at the companies where they have to work on energy efficient solutions. That experience introduces them to the potential of solar energy and in 2010 they formed their own company Ecozen Solutions so that they get to experiment on energy efficient solutions. They launched a couple of pilot projects in the farms across north India. They launched Ecotron, Solar water pump for small-time farmers in December 2014. These solar water pumps ranged about Rs. 1.1 lac. to 1.2 lac. Per HP. This Solar pump system has the controller to store energy which can be used to power other appliances like fans, tubes etc. This was the great solutions for the farmers who were using the agricultural pumps which run on electricity or on diesel. The long power cuts and high fuel prices were the main problems of these farmers.
By using Ecotron, Solar water pump farmers have shown a 50% increase in income along with the reduction of electricity bills. Ecozen has sold 400 pumps in India and providing services in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. There are currently 19 solar manufacturers in India. Ecozen claims to be the only solar water pump manufacturer with a controller that has advanced predictive analytics, which ensures the highest uptime and lower maintenance cost.

Renewable energy
Renewable energy is the energy that is collected from Renewable resources like Sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves etc. The national energy market s is expected to grow strongly in near future. The two countries Norway and Iceland are already generating all their electricity using renewable energy and many countries have set a goal to reach 100% renewable energy in the future. The former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that the using renewable energy the poorest nations can lift themselves to a new level of prosperity.
The share of total consumption of renewable energy is increasing as the renewable energy systems are becoming more efficient and cheaper.

Do you have any queries on Technology in Agriculture? Or Call us today on 1800 121 7515.

Source From: http://bit.ly/2Rmcz7s