Funders & Partners
Our researchers:
Sangeeta Chopra,
Principal Scientist, Agricultural Engineering Division, IARI, New Delhi
Dr. Sangeeta Chopra is a scientist in Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India. She graduated in Electrical/Power Electronics Engineering from IITs, Roorkee and Kharagpur and has doctorate in Energy Science and Technology from PAU. She has worked on developing evaporatively cooled (EC) structures for perishables storage and for livestock comfort.
Her current research work is on combining solar refrigeration with evaporative cooling systems and on pulse electric field pretreatment method for essential oil extraction. She has gained international research experience, working in Michigan State University (MSU), USA in 2014.
She has received a grant for an IARI-MSU collaborative project ‘Low-Carbon Footprint Cool Storage Structures to Empower Farmers: Improving Storage and Enabling Processing of Perishable Produce’, from the USAID Global Centre for Food Systems Innovation (GCFSI), USA in an international competition of “2014/2015 Food Systems Innovations Grant”.
She is a Fulbright Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellow, 2017-18. In 2019, she has been granted a project titled “Off-grid, clean energy cooling for affordable storage of perishables for BOP farmers” by Partnership for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) cycle 7 in which they are putting up walk-in Farm SunFridges in three villages in hot and dry states of India to test them on field conditions.
Randolph Beaudry,
Professor, MSU Department of Horticulture (MSc, PhD, University of Georgia)
Randolph Beaudry, Professor, MSU Department of Horticulture (MSc, PhD, University of Georgia). His appointment is 50% MSU Extension and 50% AgBioResearch. His research program includes both regional and international projects and focuses on the physiology of plant responses to storage environments and technological innovations that improve handling and storage of horticultural produce.
Norbert Mueller,
Professor, MSU Department of Mechanical Engineering (MS, PhD, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden)
Dr. Mueller is an elected member of the National Academy of Inventors. His research program includes both regional and international projects and focuses on new and innovative designs of refrigeration systems, turbomachine impeller and use of water as a refrigerant.
Indra Mani,
Head, Division of Agri. Engineering, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi
Indra Mani has expertise in input energy management for Indian agriculture, development of solar based technologies for on-farm storage and value addition and machinery development for mechanized agriculture. His research contributions involve extensive studies on energy use efficiency of rice-wheat crop production system, energy consumption pattern for rural villages at different altitudes, biomass briquetting, biomass densification for animal feed and development of number of solar based technologies like solar operated vegetable seed dryer, solar based mobile storage structure and grid less-battery less on farm storage structure for perishables.
Our current team members:
Jitendra Chaturvedi,
Horticulturist
Jitendra Chaturvedi is a horticulturist and has rich experience in ready to eat natural food product development, establishment of agri business and social development projects. He is Director, JSM FOODS, exporters of blended spices and ready to eat products and Chief Executive Officer of Krishak Vikas Sansthan, NGO in Ajmer, India.
Tushar Kaushik,
Senior research fellow under PEER, USAID project at ICAR-IARI, New Delhi
Tushar Kaushik has a post graduate degree from TERI (The Energy and Research Institute) University (now TERI School of Advanced Study) in Renewable Energy Engineering and Management and has graduated in Electrical Engineering from Dehradun Institute of Technology, Dehradun. He has been selected for an online course on Post Harvest and Fresh cut Technologies from Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Spain. His areas of interest are Solar DC, Power Electronics, Renewable Energy Applications and Fault Analysis in Power System.
Jeet Singh (Kaleji),
Mason
Jeet Singh (Kaleji) is a skilled mason in our team. He has expertise in building the Farm SunFridge. He has built two of them, one each at IARI, New Delhi and at a farm community in village Picholiya, Ajmer, Rajasthan. He is currently building the third Farm SunFridge at village Chamrara, Panipat, Haryana.
Priyanka Mahangade,
Priyanka Mahangade Ph.D. research scholar at IARI, India
Priyanka is doing research on “study of solar refrigerated and evaporative cooled (SREC) structure for storage of perishables agriculture commodities” under the PEER project.
Mr. Lokendra Singh,
Farmer
Mr. Lokendra Singh is a progressive farmer from village Picholiya, block Pisangan, Ajmer District, Rajasthan, India. He is Director of Krishakmitra farmer producer organization and owns 25 acres of upland with bore wells and sufficient water for irrigation. He cultivates Amla (Indian Gooseberry) along with Lemon (Barahmasi variety). He has adapted multiple strategies, such as rearing cows and goats to enrich soil health and manage pests and diseases using cow- and plant-based products.
