Artisans Center Malori
Our Head Office is located at Malori near Mandi, where we have vegetable tanning unit , a group of artisans manufacturing leather products like bags and purses , bone utilization unit, red clay pottery demonstration center to upgrade skill of potters , improved black smithy demonstration center and low cost sanitary napkin unit established with the help of DST. We are also in the process of implementing river ropeway project. The STD also has been promoting use of low cost construction materials and technique like standardized mud -blocks and micro-concrete roofing (MCR) tiles to workers and local people through Rural Building center with the help from HUDCO. We have demonstrated low cost technology by building our Nagwain center with mud-blocks and solar heating.
Fruit and vegetable processing and preservation center Nagwain
The organization have also established viable S&T based low cost fruit processing and vegetable preservation center at Nagwain by forming a group of farmers in collaboration with IARI, New Delhi. Innovations being introduced are both in terms of technology and production system. A group of rural women farmers has been working here for sustainable value addition and providing employment and generating income by manufacturing fruit juices, jams, pickles etc under brand name Farmers and is profit making venture. New carbonated fruit drinks from plum, rhododendron, sea-buckthorn, orange, lemon and honey have also been developed and being marketed after studying their qualitative efficacy. This group has also raised nursery plants to promote scientific nursery techniques in collaboration with UHF, Regional Horticulture Research Station Bajaura. An experimental low cost cold storage unit in collaboration with CTD New Delhi and ASTRA group of IISC is also underway. Efforts are also on to develop low chilling/ dwarf varieties of apple plants suitable to lower areas through technology adaptation to check impact of global warming . The organization is also doing value addition of locally produced honey in Nagwain area and have introduced honey products like ginger honey drink , Tulsi honey drink and honey appetizer through which local honey producers are fetching good price for honey producers. STD is also working on pine needle briquetting technology in collaboration with HESCO, Dehradun for making best use of pine needles which are in abundance in the area by involving rural women and using this as a fuel in our fruit processing unit. The trial demonstration and extraction from selected non- edible oil bearing plant species and aromatic plants is also in the process, which can be marketed after R&D and value addition at Nagwain center.