• M. Kamakshi Kanchana

In India 5-18% of fruit and vegetable are lost post-harvest causing economic loss to farmers. Fruits and vegetables are transported to con-sumers in the range of 60KMS and 1500 KMs making them expensive to the consumers and also contributing to the increased carbon foot-print. As the country faces Climate change challenges and attempt zero-emission targets, it is important to address the issue of post-harvest losses and food miles. In this paper, a novel sustainable design idea to store fruits and vegetables to increase the shelf life is proposed. Dehydration of fruits and vegetables reduces the weight by 30-60%. Excess produce can be dehydrated and sent to consumers by reducing the transport cost by 20-30%. In this paper, a sustainable low-cost evaporation-based cooling chamber to preserve produce and a low-cost greenhouse dryer is proposed. The design is economic and modular when compared with highly expensive, capital-intensive solutions which are available. Experimental results of an evaporation-based cooling unit and a mini greenhouse are presented in this paper as a proof of concept.

Carbon Footprint reduction, Greenhouse dehydrator, Food miles, Low-cost Cold storage, Post-Harvest loss, Zero emissions.

"Low-Cost Design Solution For Fruits And Vegetable Evaporative Cooling And Dehydration", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.9, Issue 1, page no.a552-a555, January-2022, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2201073.pdf

"Low-Cost Design Solution For Fruits And Vegetable Evaporative Cooling And Dehydration", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.9, Issue 1, page no. ppa552-a555, January-2022, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2201073.pdf