Society for Science: Solar Power Turns Waste into Food at the Farm Gate
A new solar-powered food processor could disrupt the back end of the global food industry by turning damaged produce into nutritional food ingredients.
Smallholder farmers use a solar-powered food processing system to convert cosmetically damaged produce that would normally be discarded into food ingredients. These ingredients are then collected and sold to the food and beverage industry.
India’s Science for Society (S4S) claims that its food preservation and processing technology could transform the entire food chain. Relying on solar instead of coal, wood, or other fossil fuel powered electricity, damaged vegetables, fruits, spices, marine products and milk are transformed at the farm gate without any CO2 emissions. S4S says that its system has so far prevented 1.8 million tons of CO2e from entering the environment.
The company has already worked with 300,000 smallholder farmers to repurpose post-harvest loss, which has provided a whole new income stream for smallholder farmers and women micro-entrepreneurs, many of whom are not land owners and do not have their own bank accounts. By co-developing a unique financing model with women farmers to leverage financing through partnerships with the Indian government and national Indian banks, S4S has enabled these women to access to land without capital or credit history. Moving women out of poverty means greater participation in decision-making at home, and could help them to get leadership positions in their community.
S4S’s mission is about social impact, and it states that its solar-powered technology is a reliable and cost-effective alternative to fossil fuels. It claims to be solving three challenges simultaneously: By turning produce that would normally become post-harvest loss and waste into highly nutritious food, it is helping to halt malnutrition among women and children, while boosting the income of farmers.
Its work encourages gender equality and promotes women’s entrepreneurship while its integrated food-energy system has contributed to energy and food security. Contributing to job creation, gender equality, and climate resilience and adaptation, it’s a wraparound climate solution with social impact at its heart.
A digital platform further supports smallholder farmers to adopt climate-smart agriculture practices, educating and empowering them to understand the need to build climate resilience. Moving from cash crops to horticulture produce like climate-resilient millet is a vital part of the transformation of agriculture across India.
S4S’s aim is ambition; it says its system can be rolled out across Africa and Asia, repurposing a variety of food and drink categories including milk, pulses, spices, tea, and coffee while supporting smallholder farmers to shift from cash crops to diversified mixed food crops.