Ambadi, globally known as Roselle (scientific name: Hibiscus Sabdarifa) is a nutritional herb with various health and economic benefits stemming from processing of its various parts.

Over the past few years, the importance of Indian Roselle has re-emerged as a nutritional and medicinal herb. Global demand has skyrocketed for its healthy Hibiscus tea. It is envisioned that Indian roselle reaches higher economic potential to match that of Malaysia, China and Africa. Current bottleneck lies in optimizing the separation process so that more produce can be made from the 10 day long annual cultivation season. Hence, this project aims at bringing in a design intervention for enhancing the production while exploring MSME and SHG style setups to enterprise the crop and bring benefit to the farmer and associated channels at large.

The plant’s morphology and vernacular nomenclature were observed at first along with gathering all available information about the dimensions of varieties under cultivation. Through the RuTAG team and from project guide’s network in Vidharbha region, two enterprises were found out- one being an institute for village initiatives and one being an entrepreneur who has India’s first Fssai licence for Ambadi Tea. The two economic models were thoroughly studied for their approach to labor, logistics and quality. Desk research about Roselle’s development in Florida, Sudan, Kenya and Malaysia was done along with understanding basics of food post-processing. Two commercial retailers from e-commerce websites were also contacted to seek bottlenecks for the industry in general.

The task at hand was to reduce the drudgery in Calyx removal process of Ambadi and initial ideations including sketches and mockups were done much before the harvesting period, so as to take primary feedback from stakeholders while doing an initial field visit. This helped us in having very involved conversations with the enterprise heads and the modifiable nature of the mockups helped us quickly iterate based on feedback.

Various cutting principles were sketched out, clustered and refined to form five ideas, each of whose mockups were taken to field for primary feedback. Sketching phase also included three unique workstation arrangements and material handling options.

The first field visit helped understand the status quo and gather stories about successes, failures and earnings over last few seasons. This helped us define parameters for developing the machine and its expected output. Selected two ideations in their refined avatar were fabricated in metal while keeping it adjustable for various options in height, blade edge dimensions, holding patterns, base etc.

The second was scheduled towards the end of the cultivation period. This visit helped us see the separation process in action, meet the villagers and see the hands right after a cultivation period. We also got to test the refined ideas and compare them to existing methodology of separation. Two parameters were used for evaluations- approximate energy expenditure and time taken. these were done using a heart rate monitor and a stopwatch app on the mobile phone. This time the cutting tools being used, ancillary equipment, material handling, weighing and drying equipment, etc were documented. Samples of the fruit were also taken for testing later.

The ideations with their options were tested and further refinements were arrived at in consultation with the stakeholders. These were brought back to the drawing table and the final concept was formed. Once detailed, it was fabricated and made to spec. Then tested by a user in various conditions with respect to ergonomics, namely seated on the floor, standing on a table, etc. container orientation and muscle duress were also estimated.

This academic project culminates at an interim stage in the overall scope of proposing a designed ‘roselle ecosystem’ with the introduction of a workstation tool for SHG style separation of the calyces. The same tool shall be further tested in the coming season and then scaled up into a machine.

Case Study Download:
• Design Intervention in Ambadi Calyx Removal......
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