Nidhi Pant, the girl who at a young age aims to improve the conditions of women farmers by helping them in keeping their produce fresh. At the age when people are seen exploring the world of swipe right, she is busy focusing on making the lives of farmers better and easier by addressing the issues they face in their everyday life. Having a longer shelf life was only a wish and dream of many farmers until Nidhi Pant decided to take a step forward and come into the picture.
Founder’s Background
Nidhi Pant from Mumbai is a chemical engineer by profession and an entrepreneur by heart who has successfully carved a niche suiting purposes in life. Hailing from a family of doctorates Nidhi has her goal set to bring up technologies to help the farmers. Her one such start-up is the S4S technologies of which she is the co-founder. She has experiences in sustainability and development both in India and abroad and is also willing to bring in deeper insights and perspective into the work she does and the responsibility she shoulders.
Her Journey
Nidhi Pant was always keen on doing something for the society and working for the betterment of it. She wanted to use her chemical technology background as a way to innovate and develop scientific solutions for the farmers or the agricultural sector. During the early years of her life, before being a co-founder of S4S technology, Nidhi Pant was actively involved in helping and rebuilding communities that were affected by natural calamities in rural areas. Having an interest in working for a social cause, Nidhi along with her friends co-founded S4S Technology. The company was successful in receiving 685,000 dollars in funding from FactorE Ventures and angel investors. They expect to see their revenue grow from 2 million dollars in 2019-2020 to 10 million dollars by 2020-2021. At the inaugural edition of Economic Times, Women Leadership Awards Nidhi was titled the “Emerging Innovator of the Year.” Nidhi has also won the Unilever Young Entrepreneur Award in 2019.
The Science for Society Technologies [S4S]
Vaibhav Tidke, a student from the Institute of Chemical Engineering, Mumbai observed that farmers had to sell their produce at low cost as keeping them would lead to rotting. That’s when this business model of letting the foods reaching the market came to his mind. It also helped dehydrate and process excess fruits and vegetables. Vaibhav Tidke along with his peers namely, Nidhi Pant, Ganesh Bhere, Tushar Gaware, Swapnil Kotate, Shital Somani, and Ashwin Pawade set up S4S [Science for Society Technology] in 2014. Selecting women farmers as their target audience, they spent 2 years designing the machine for them.
The Product – Solar Conduction Dryer
Ever since its invention, the use of solar conduction dryer hasn’t stopped. The final design of this product is 6ft. × 6ft. that can be easily assembled and dismantled. As the product works on solar energy which is known as a renewable source of energy they are a perfect choice for the farmers because they don’t have to worry about additional erratic electricity supply costs.
Other than a one-time security deposit cost, there’s no other cost that the farmers have to bear. They ensure the installation of the machine at the farmer’s place and charge around Rs.1000 – Rs.2000 as a security deposit. All they have to do to maintain it is wipe the tray with a wet cloth. To ensure proper maintenance and raw material availability, the local team visits once a week. If it so happens that there’s a lack of material, the team makes it a point to get it from another village.
Featured Image – Facebook
To know more about Nidhi Pant, please check – Facebook and LinkedIn.
To know more about S4S Technologies, please check – Website and Facebook.
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