Doubling farmers’ income through value-addition

Abstract

To capture additional price by adding value to farm products on-the farm is the dream of many producers. To make their dreams true, ICAR-CIAH, has developed various postharvest technologies which could be applied on- or offthe farm with minimal requirements of processing equipment. The developed technologies include pre-harvest treatment technologies for uniform and early ripening of phalsa and date palm; postharvest treatments for uniform and faster ripening of bael fruits; packaging technologies for ber, datepalm, mulberry etc.; protocols for development of fruit beverages from arid horticultural crops such as bael, ber, jatikhatti, karonda, mulberry, phalsa, cactus pear etc.; technologies for on-farm production of concentrated vegetables; development of diversified processed products like aonla mouth freshener, kachri based ready-to-use curry powder, kakdi ketchup, bael fruit powder, date and khejri biscuits, etc. In addition, an extraction protocol for natural food colorant -lalima from karonda fruits has been developed. Most of these technologies are under final stages of refinement and will be ready for technology transfer to farmer groups, entrepreneurs and small-scale industries for commercialisation.