Ventilated onion storage shed building service

This business builds and repairs kanda chawl, the raised, airy sheds Nashik farmers use to store onion. You put up a steel frame on a raised floor so air flows through the pile, fit side mesh and a sound roof, and fix old sheds that trap heat.

Nashik is one of India's largest onion-growing districts. Much of the summer crop, harvested from March to May, is kept on the farm and sold slowly through markets such as Lasalgaon. In a badly built shed, heat and damp make bulbs rot and sprout. NABARD's 2023-24 credit plan for Nashik puts storage, market yards, godowns and cold chains at Rs 201.68 crore of credit potential, and notes that most landholders here are small and marginal farmers. For them, a good shed is far cheaper than cold storage.

You need a welding set, cutting tools, a used pickup or hired transport, and two or three trained helpers. Learn tested designs from onion research centres. The hard part is that orders bunch up before harvest, and some growers want to pay only after they sell their onion, so take an advance that covers the steel. Many local fabricators already build chawls, so neat work and fair quotes matter.

Find customers through input shops, onion trading agents, farmer producer organisations (FPOs) and word of mouth.