Revolutionizing onion preservation: A novel aerated storage approach

Abstract

The second goal of sustainable development is ending hunger, achieving food security improving nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture. Improved storage system is a part of sustainable agriculture. This research aimed to design and develop an aerated storage system for onions and examined the extent of losses to assess the efficacy of the storage system. Unseasonal rainfall and adequate storage facilities result in quick sales and spoilage of onions. A huge amount of onion is damaged due to a lack of proper post-harvest actions like storage, transportation, temperature control, and humidity control in our country. In this study, 40 kg of onion inside the storage and 10 kilograms outside the storage were stored for four weeks from 12 October to 8 November to observe parameters like percentage of moisture loss, sprouting, deterioration, and marketable onion. Temperature as well as relative humidity was observed throughout storage. After completing the research, it was found that the appropriate temperature was 27˚C with 83% relative humidity resulting in minimum losses throughout four weeks of storage period. It was also observed that marketable onion bulbs for aerated storage systems was 97.536% on the other hand marketable onion bulbs for natural or open storage systems was 91.629% which was less than aerated storage systems. So, the aerated storage system is more effective for storing the onion than the natural or open storage system. Small-scale farmers will be benefited and the supply chain management will be maintained using this storage system. Additionally, stakeholders and families will benefit from reduced onion damage percentages when utilizing this storage solution.