Farm level puffed potato cube production project near Mumbai

Throughout the last two years, CTI volunteers Shiv Murty, Steve Laible, and Nancy Laible have been in contact with Prof. Narendra Shah at the Center for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay to discuss the rural community needs and potential solutions in the region near Mumbai.
 
A major need in the area is to preserve the potato harvest in a way that will generate income.  To that end, a project to disseminate small-scale equipment to make "processed potato products"was initiated at CTARA. The project involves developing equipment for making puffed potato cubes which can be consumed or sold at market. To help streamline the manufacturing process, CTI offered its potato peeling and slicing equipment from West Bengal.  

After a visit to CTI volunteer Bibek Ray's potato-processing facilities in Gohaldanga, West Bengal, Prof. Shah and his team decided to purchase the peeler and slicer units for testing. The units will be fabricated in West Bengal and shipped to Mumbai by March where they will be placed with a local entrepreneur for field testing.  It is everyone's hope that the field tests will prove the equipment useful in streamlining the production of these income-generating puffed potato cubes.