Many of us are familiar with alternatives to the refrigerator like the Zeer Pot or Mitti Cool. A month ago, we decided to make a Zeer Fridge from a couple of pots lying outside.  Took the bigger pot, filled some sand at the bottom and sides (the trick it to wet the sand before filling it so it stays glued), slid in the smaller pot, threw in some veggies and covered with a wet towel. That’s it!

Of course, I need to sprinkle water on the sand and top once in the morning and afternoon.  Even with just one inch sand layer we have, the veggies stay fresh for  4 to 5 days. So do green chillies, lemon ginger and curry leaves. We haven’t tried out fruits – sensitive ones like melons should be interesting.   We don’t have the need to store milk but our extra yoghurt is happy inside the pot and doesn’t turn sour for a day or two.

Can it replace the fridge as we know it? I doubt it. So many other industries have spawned around the double edges of deep cooling and microwaving (large milk containers, frozen dinners, special storage boxes, ziploc bags..) that make the conventional  refrigerator a ‘need’.

But it could be very impactful in other contexts. We see Babu our friend here selling his tomatoes for a loss wholesale while the local retailer makes a decent profit off the same selling to people like us, end consumers. The retailers  main argument in quoting low prices at the vegetable auction market is that he has to bear the losses for perishables which they account as 50%. In reality, even the lowest grade tomato is not thrown away but sold at throw-away prices and all this is free money for the retailer. Like Babu says, every year, the number of gold rings on retailers fingers keeps increasing while farmers like him wear the same set of shirts to the market for 7 years running.

Of course there is more to this equation. The hold of auction system that retailers have established and command is quite strong due to lack of other local outlets for farmers. For a farmer like Babu, transport to a far away lucrative market means more fuel expense and more goods perishing. And they invest so much in fertilizers and insecticides and labor that it is hard to turn a decent profit anyways.

If Zeer Pot like fridges can be made to order for both the retailer and vegetable farmer, it can change the scenario in farmers favor quite a bit.