Small-scale farmers like Gopi in Tamil Nadu often faced steep losses during paddy processing—turning 500 kg of paddy into only 275–300 kg of rice—due to inefficient diesel-powered mills The Better India +1 . Enter SEMA Alto (“Solar‑powered Efficient Machinery for Agriculture”), a Bengaluru-based startup founded in 2017 by Assad Jaffer and Dania Athar. They crafted a compact, modular, and affordable solar-compatible rice mill tailored for rural villages The Better India +1 . With over 150 units installed across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh, these mills enable farmers to process fresh paddy locally on demand, reducing transport, income losses, and dependency on intermediaries The Better India +2 The Better India +2 . The mills are energy-efficient and engineered for high yield: a pre-cleaner, de-stoner, triple-roller sheller, separators, polishers, and graders—arranged in a gravity-fed (“waterfall”) layout—boost head‑rice recovery to approximately 65%, compared to the usual 25–40% from conventional mills The Better India . For Gopi, this means 320–350 kg of rice from 500 kg paddy—about a 30% recovery improvement—and enables him to earn Rs 80–100 per kg instead of Rs 45–50 for raw paddy—effectively doubling his income The Better India +2 The Better India +2 . Scaling this innovation was enabled by CEEW’s “Powering Livelihoods” initiative, which facilitated financing (including First-Loss Default Guarantees), awareness campaigns, local demonstrations, and advocacy for inclusion in the national PM‑FME scheme—opening doors to subsidies and institutional support