Aug 19: Agrograde, an agricultural technology company, has installed its GradePlus Pro onion grading system at a farmer producer company in Pimpalgaon, a major onion trading and export hub in Nashik district. The system can process up to 10 metric tons of onions per hour, reduces the labor required for grading by nearly 80 percent compared with manual sorting, and grades onions with 99 percent accuracy, based on figures the company released. The deployment marks a significant milestone in modernising onion post-harvest operations, an area that has long remained dependent on manual handling despite the volumes.
Agrograde has built the new system around Wave Motion Technology, designed to move onions through the grading line with less abrupt contact than conventional equipment, aiming to reduce skin scuffing and peeling while enhancing the throughput by 3-5 times compared to manual processes. The machine also automates unloading and bagging steps in addition to grading.
Onion grading in India has historically been done by hand. Producers and industry groups have said that automated systems used elsewhere tend to damage the thin outer skin of Indian onion varieties through the friction involved in mechanical handling, which can shorten shelf life and reduce prices for growers and exporters. Even imported machines worth 1.25 Crores damaged the onion skin and caused peeling. That has limited the adoption of grading machinery in the sector, even as India remains one of the world’s largest onion producers and exporters.
Separately, Agrograde has introduced a tractor-mounted version of the grading machine that can be moved between farms, packhouses, cold storages and mandis, allowing grading to take place closer to harvest rather than at a centralized facility. This version uses the same underlying technology as the Pimpalgaon installation.
Rakeshkumar Barai, co-founder of Agrograde, said the company had aimed to build a system suited to conditions specific to the Indian onion supply chain rather than adapting equipment developed for other markets. “We have now brought down the grading costs to almost INR 0.05 per kilogram at speeds up to 200 MT per day,” Barai said.