Hyderabad, March 22, 2025: Post-harvest facilities were Created for Small and Marginal Farmers in two Villages Bilakar and Devbrampally in Vikarabad District Inaugurated.
These facilities include 50MT Onion Storage, a 1000 kg solar Dryer, and a Prefab Room for ancillary equipment at Bilakal Village in Marpalle Mandal, Vikarabad district. 2Mt Cold Storage, 1000 Kgs Solar Dryer, Prefab room for ancillary equipment at Devrampally village in Pargi Mandal. Both these villages fall under Vikarabad District. Over 500 farmers in each village are expected to benefit from these facilities.
The facilities were formally inaugurated by Michael Raj, Vice President, Corporate Sustainability at HSBC Global Service Centres, which has financially contributed to the projects. The facilities were inaugurated in the presence of Ms Madhuvanthi, Mr Deepak Kadas of United Ways, an implementation agency, Mr Yadav Reddy, State Coordinator for Centre For Sustainable Agriculture, an NGO that works to establish sustainable farming models and CEO and representatives of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO) of respective villages.
Addressing the farmers, FPO representative Michael Raj said HSBC was happy to support the farmers in the best possible way. He urged them to make use of the facility. He thanked those farmers who gave land to set up these facilities. Storage of vegetables contributes to price stabilization by carrying over produce from periods of high production to periods of low production. These facilities are the need of the hour, he said.
Both villages have farmers who predominantly grow vegetables. All the farmers are small and marginal farmers who hold less than two and a half acres. In agriculture, postharvest handling is important. As these products have limited shelf-life facilities like cold storage and solar dryers play a very important role, especially in prolonging the shelf life of the products They are also equally important for cooling, cleaning, sorting and packing. The instant a crop is removed from the ground, or separated from its parent plant, it begins to deteriorate. so it needs to be preserved.
Solar dryers are important because they offer a sustainable, efficient, and cost-effective method for drying various products, especially when prices go down, just like in the case of Tomatoes, the dried products will add value instead of throwing them. Solar dryers are used to eliminate the moisture content from crops, vegetables, and fruits.
