Our Indian Solar Dairy initiative was launched last month and we have already made serious strides. The farmer has been really content with the system thus far and is reworking his but we have been experimenting with several features to ensure that he can optimally utilize the system.
The Cooling Curve
What is the Cooling Curve? Well, technically, it's a line graph that illustrates the change of state of matter. But we aren't interested in changing the state of milk from liquid to solid. Rather, it is important for us to ensure that the milk cools down to a certain temperature to inhibit the growth of certain bacteria types.
Our associate dairy expert, Cornelius Moss, provides us with some valuable information:
Based on our efforts in Kenya and Uganda, our initial goal was to get the farmers' milk chilled to 7°C (44.6°F) in a span of 4 hours. In late February, we tried to achieve this curve by experimenting with various sizes of the canisters that are used to store the milk.
However, unprecedented issues have arisen since then and we have had to make certain adjustments to our setup. Specifically, we have encountered issues where it is difficult for us to chill the milk to 7°C (44.6°F).
Fortunately, different climate conditions in India mean that we only need to chill the milk to 15°C (59°F) within a 3 hour period. Why? Well as the table mentions, the Mesophilic bacteria found in India usually grows between 20 to 38°C. Thus, chilling the milk to 15°C (well below the 20°C point), would inhibit any Mesophile growth.
National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) Visit
Currently, we are also working with the local authorities to conduct further testing on the milk at a facility in Deoghar district in Jharkhand, India.
Besides that, we have also been working with India's NDDB. The NDDB was "created to promote, finance and support producer-owned and controlled organisations." We are thrilled to be working with such a major partner who shares a similar vision of "reaching out to dairy farmers by implementing other income-generating innovative activities and offering them [a] sustainable livelihood."
Recently, we had the pleasure of a visit from Milan, a representative of the National Dairy Development Board. We are continuously working with the NDDB to ensure that we can extend our project to benefit the entire Indian dairy farmer populace.
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