Marginal and small scale dairy farmers can really have good days ahead with the innovation of a milk chilling unit that has been widely accepted. The chilling technology has been developed by a Bangalore based researcher, who recently won the 25,000 dollar worth BRCS young Innovator prize in Rio De Janerio, Brazil.
Ravi Prakash’s chilling unit is based on nano-particle which can cool milk from the point of production. The temperature of raw milk can be reduced to about seven degrees Celsius from the 37 degrees within half an hour by using the chilling milk unit.
Prakash is a Phd scholar at the ICAR- National Dairy Research Institute, Bangalore. Born into a farmer’s family in West Champaran district in Bihar, he was much interested in farming and dairying. It was this interest in him that has led to the innovation of the chilling Can. He realised that preserving and maintaining the quality of raw milk from harvest time was much needed.
The new technology used in the chilling milk Unit helps in cooling of raw milk instantly after milking. The technology is also useful to refrigerate small volumes of milk. As most of the time electric power may not be available in rural areas, the milk cans have been designed with nano-particles enhanced with fluid based change materials with cooling energy storage capacity. The cooling unit also comes with a charger to facilitate charging the container for keeping it cool.
The new cooling pans are also farmer friendly and easy to handle and maintain. They come in price between Rs 1500 and Rs 2000 Indian money.
