Stored onions rot, sprout and lose weight, and farmers lose money. To cut those losses, a team at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) has built and tested an automatic onion storage system based on Internet of Things (IoT) technology. A unit holding about 500 kg would cost an estimated Tk 25,000 to build and install and could be used for 7-8 years, the researchers say.
The system has sensors for temperature and humidity and a gas sensor that detects gases linked to rotting. A microcontroller analyses the readings and switches fans on or off to control airflow in the store. The researchers stress that it is not air-conditioning: it improves storage conditions by controlling ventilation on the basis of sensor data.
The research was led by Professor Md Rostam Ali of BAU's Department of Farm Power and Machinery, funded by the BAU Research System and the University Grants Commission (UGC), and published in the Journal of Food Process Engineering.
In a storage trial of about 80 days, Professor Ali said, total weight loss in the new system was 7.31 percent, and the marketable share of onions rose from 68.22 percent under the conventional method to 76.81 percent: about 8.59 kg more sellable onions per 100 kg, or about 43 kg per 500 kg. Store temperature stayed between 18.81 and 28.17 degrees Celsius and relative humidity between 54.32 and 82.60 percent. The paper reports that the gas sensor detected spoilage with an average effectiveness of about 85 percent.
For a farmer it offers a cheap way to hold onions with less loss when prices collapse at harvest, though the researcher said the real gain would depend on onion prices and storage practice. The unit can be built for 1,000 kg if needed.
Before it reaches the field, Professor Ali said, it needs further improvement and larger trials in real storage conditions. The team is testing it on potatoes and garlic as well as onions and working on running it entirely on solar power. With financial and technical support, he said, a field-ready model could be ready within one to two years.
Photo: Onion production in Bangladesh, Shmunmun / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Agri Barta
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