Zayed Sustainability Prize empowers 60,000 farmers, 1,200 rural women in India1

What is the Zayed sustainability prize2?

The Zayed Sustainability Prize, established in 2008, is an evolution of the Zayed Future Energy Prize, which is the UAE's pioneering global award in sustainability and a tribute to the legacy of the late founding father of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. This award recognizes and rewards the achievements of those who are driving impactful, innovative, and inspiring sustainability solutions across five distinct categories: Health, Food, Energy, Water and Global High Schools.

In its latest receival, the Zayed Sustainability Prize has been able to recognize the efforts of an Indian-based startup called Science for Society (S4S) Technologies, which intends to help farmers and rural women to raise their income by way of cutting down on food waste.

It was a realization of the fact that a significant amount of farmers' produce goes to waste due to several reasons some of which are listed below:

  • The farmers lack the means to store/preserve their harvest
  • They do not have the experience to sell it on a wider scale
  • They lack technical knowledge of modern agricultural practices.

Science for Society (S4S) Technologies has been able to invent a solar food hydrator, as a solution to help the farmers in addressing issues with respect to food wastage in the process of farming. This invention will help the farmers to convert food waste into non-perishable food ingredients that can be sold, which will in turn be another source of income for the farmers.

This invention has been patented by the founders, which is electricity-free, hence avoiding the problems caused by long power cuts.

The SME also digitalized its value chain after receiving a $600,000 cash prize as the Prize under this Zayed Sustainability Prize.

Footnotes

1. https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/uae-zayed-sustainability-prize-empowers-60000-farmers-1200-rural-women-in-india

2. https://zayedsustainabilityprize.com/en/

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