Machine helps farmers to know their onions

At the heart of the gadget is a simple double-roller technique, which distinguishes between round vegetables and fruits on the basis of their diameters. Apart from onions, it can handle garlic, various varieties of lemons and round potatoes.

Grading has a vital role to play in agri-marketing, especially in exports. The general experience is that properly graded fruits and vegetables command a better value than randomly graded stuff, ‘‘at times up to a whopping 10 per cent’’, according to Maharashtra State Agricultural Marketing Board managing director Ram Kharche.

Every year, Maharashtra produces around 12 to 13 lakh tons of onions, a major part of which continues to be graded manually. The process is both time-consuming and expensive, with labourers costing upto Rs 20 per hour. An efficient onion-grader, on the other hand, can sort around 100 kg of onions an hour — five times the quantum that can be sorted by hand in the same time span — and with greater precision, says Lawande.

Currently priced at Rs 14,000, the State Marketing Department plans to sell 200 such machines in the current year. There is a 25 per cent cost subsidy for buyers. ‘‘We have already asked all our taluka level offices to process the proposals,’’ says Kharche.

The Centre is now planning to upgrade the manual edition of the gadget by adding a 1.5 HP diesel motor to it. ‘‘The capacity addition will augment the machine’s commercial implications,’’ points out Lawande.

This will help onion marketers handling large consignments of ungraded produce.