Doubling farmers’ income through value addition.

Abstract

Farm producers earn only a small proportion of the consumer’s price compared to the food processors, especially the producers of branded food items. In fact, adding value to the arid horticulture produce beyond the farm gate has multiple economic impact compared to their production alone. Capturing this additional price by adding value to farm products on-the-farm is the dream for many producers. In order to make their dreams true, ICAR-CIAH, has developed various postharvest technologies which could be applied on- or off-the farm with minimal requirements of the 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 to these, 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.