NDRI student bags BRICS Young Innovator award

Karnal, November 19

A student of the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) has developed an affordable indigenous milk-chilling unit for smaller and marginal rural dairy farmers.

Ravi Prakash, a PhD scholar in dairy engineering at the regional station of NDRI-Karnal in Bengaluru, used nano-fluid based phase change materials to design this unit.

It cools the milk at the field level from its ambient temperature (37°C) to 7°C, essential temperature for the shelf life of milk, in just 30 minutes in comparison to around 3 hours in a refrigerator.

He claims it is of great socio-economic importance to small and marginal rural dairy farmers as it will preserve the quality of milk after production.

“Around 80 per cent dairy farmers are still in the unorganised sector and this unit can help them save time and money. I designed this unit, having capacity of 5-6 litres, for Rs5,000,” he said.

He had won $25,000 for this project during the fourth BRICS-Young Scientist Forum (YSF) -2019 held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. — TNS