Problem Statement:

• In India, post harvest production losses amounting to over approximate USD 10 billion dollars are incurred every year. Post-harvest losses are affected by a lot of factors. In India, the major factor that affects that is lack of infrastructure, especially for perishable crops. There are lack of affordable and accessible storage facilities available. Moreover, the problem exacerbates for small and marginal farmers who are not eligible for the various schemes that can potentially help solve the problem.


• There exists an approximate gap of 84-99% in the availability of storage and transportation infrastructure in India. Moreover, the current storage solutions are expensive, inaccessible, and not environmentally friendly.


• Farmers are forced to sell their produce at whichever price is currently prevailing in the market, resulting in a loss of bargaining power.

Solution: To tackle this problem, the hub initiated Zaraat (meaning “The state of being cultivated”). Zaraat aims to minimize post-harvest losses by providing an affordable, portable and easy to use storage solution based on evaporative cooling technology and uplifts the farming community by ensuring a consistent demand as well as a fair price for their products.

Target Community: With this project, the hub is working with small and marginal farmers spread across the country.

Project Solution: The hub's solution is based on a 5-step comprehensive model.

1. Identifying the farmer community and conducting need assessment surveys with the farmers. The hub conducts a need assessment in two parts, where one aspect is just knowing the farmers and seeing if establishing the storage there would be of any help to them through secondary research and a preliminary visit. Second aspect of it involves farmer interviews where the hub takes information about the crops they produce, identifying the manager, etc.


2. Mobilizing and collecting the data of the farmers who are facing these issues and are ready to be a part of Zaraat.


3. Contacting storage partners to procure the storage and establish it in the community itself.


4. Appointing a community manager who is in charge of maintenance of the storage solution.


5. Connecting with B2B aggregators and assisting farmers to sell their produce in collaboration with Indian companies such as Big Basket, Ninja Cart, Blinkit and more.

Hub Activities:

1. Facilitating collaboration


2. Managing stakeholders


3. Need Assessments and Community Mobilization


4. Managing Logistics


5. Entrepreneurial Training


6. Recognition and Partnerships

Project Goals:

By the end of this year, Zaraat aims to:

• Mobilize 500 farmers.


• Reduce the post-harvest losses by a whopping 60%.


• Increase farmers’ income by 25%.


• The zero energy storage solution will help minimize carbon footprints by 20%, hence decreasing carbon emissions by 48.75 tonnes over the next 6 months.


• Protect the farmers from the problem of distress selling but also ensure healthy and safe consumption for the final consumers.


• Hub aspires to establish 3 storage solutions in 3 different communities in 2 states. The hub will be establishing 2 storage solutions in Haryana and 1 in Uttarakhand.

Project Impact and Metrics used: For calculating the loss reduction, the hub makes a note of the losses currently occuring, then once after establishing the storage, and lastly, after farmers start using the storage regularly. So for instance, if any farmer was producing 100kgs of production waste before storing in the new storage, and now if they are able to cut it down to 40 kgs, the project has achieved its goal. Similarly, for the incomes.

Stakeholders: IARI, MSU, Samunnati, Tan90, Sabjikothi, Student Organization