Tech that can check ‘meltdown’ of ice-cream biz in villages
Innovation can prevent traditional ice-cream biz in villages from melting away. Varsity students have developed prototype of an ice-cream box attached with a cycle, linking its cooling with the pedals
GANGOH(SAHARANPUR): All of us who have been to villages are nostalgic about the traditional ice-cream walas who used to sell their product at a reasonable price, carrying it in a wooden box on bicycle.
But now, these ‘cool guys’ are on the verge of extinction due to losses.
The traditional ice-cream walas earn their livelihood by operating for a few hours a day. Many of them have given up their business because new techniques of ice-cream making have been introduced in villages. Traditional wooden boxes are replaced by tricycle ice-cream carts, which look good and are easy to pedal through village roads.
Traditional vendors still use old techniques to keep their wooden boxes cool for storage of ice-cream.
Subhanshu Gupta, a resident of Abdullapur village in Meerut, is in icecream business for over 22 years. He used to carry traditional boxes on his bicycle until a few years ago, before replacing this system with tricycle carts.
He said keeping the wooden boxes cool for a longer time is difficult.
“We layer these wooden boxes with thermocol and newspapers to keep their cooling intact for longer life of icecreams. But these measures are only sufficient to keep the boxes cool barely for a few hours and we were bound to sell all ice-creams in 2 to 3 hours to prevent it from melting and eventually suffer loss,” he said.
However, teachers, staff and students of Shobhit University based in Gangoh town of Saharanpur understood the problem of these vendors. They decided to make use of technology to solve the problem.
After research of two years, students of the university developed a prototype of an ice-cream box attached with a cycle, linking the cooling of the box with the pedalling of the bicycle.
Kunwar Shekher Vijendra, chancellor of Shobhit University, explained: “The university is in a rural area and over 60% students here come from villages. Therefore, they understand the problems of villagers better.
The university convenes meetings of pradhans of different villages of Saharanpur and neighbouring districts twice a year and interaction with them provides an opportunity to know the ground realities there, he said.
“Besides, students from rural background also help us understand the issues and how to resolve them,” added Vijendra.
He said the problem of the vendors in villages also came to fore in a similar interaction, after which the mechanical engineering department decided to work on it.
Syed Shoaib Hussain, assistant professor in the mechanical engineering department, said: “We interacted with a few village ice-cream walas to understand the issue. All of them said they can’t sell ice cream throughout the day because cooling of boxes remains only for a few hours. Therefore, selling icecream has become a part-time job for them, which affects their earning.”
Hussain said that a compressor has been attached to the pedals of the bicycle, which completes process of cooling much faster by using zeolites. The entire system costs barely ₹ 10,000 and it works on ‘more pedaling, more cooling’ basis which provides the poor vendors more time to sell ice-cream.
Ranjit Singh, pro-vice-chancellor of the university, said: “It could be a good option for providing poor people in remote villages an opportunity to earn their livelihood. Business in villages is generally run on hire basis. One person can purchases this apparatus and rent it out to others. Moreover, it can also prevent traditional ice-cream walas from vanishing.”
The university is in the process of getting its research patent before entering into an arrangement for its production and hopes it would soon benefit villagers.
TRACTOR-TROLLEY ALSO A ‘WEIGHING MACHINE’!
Tractor-trollies are an integral part of village life and people use these for commuting, transporting sugarcane, other agriculture produce etc.
Western UP is a sugar belt and the rural economy of the region is largely dependent on sugarcane. During the crushing season, farmers take their sugarcane to weighing centres and often accuse the staff of under-weighing the agri produce.
Working on the issue, students and teachers of Shobhit University have developed a ‘prototype of a tractor-trolley’ that has weighing facility. They have fitted strain gauge at four corners of the trolley along with a display board.
Asst prof Hussain said: “Once you put the load on the trolley, its weight will be displayed on display meter attached to it. This will help farmers know how much weight they are carrying to the weighing centre.”
Dharmendra Malik, state spokesperson of Bharatiya Kisan Union, said: “Weighing issues have always been a major problem during the sugarcane crushing season, which is a direct loss to farmers. If the university has developed such a mechanism at an affordable price, then farmers will welcome it.”
Hussain claimed that the device costs just Rs 2,000, which is affordable for the farmers. “It will put an effective check on ‘ghattauli’ (under weighing of crops) and help increase income of farmers.”
UNIVERSITY STUDENTS HAVE ALSO DEVELOPED A ROTATING TRACTOR-TROLLEY, WHICH WILL ENABLE FARMERS TAKE IT THROUGH NARROW STREETS OF VILLAGES. THEY CAN DUMP AGRI PRODUCE AT A DESIRED SPOT, INSTEAD OF PUTTING IT ON THE ROAD BEFORE TAKING IT HOME
ROTATING TRACTOR-TROLLEY
University students have also developed a rotating tractor-trolley, which will enable farmers take it through narrow streets of villages. They can dump agri produce at a desired spot, instead of putting it on the road before taking it home.
The trolley rotates 360 degrees and now work is in progress to a fit a hydraulic system to it so that the crop loads could be dumped in any direction, as per requirement of farmers, said Hussain.
He said: “It seems like a small thing, but farmers will benefit from it.”