Thursday, November 22, 2012

CIPHET signs MoU with Mizoram for providing cost effective storage

LUDHIANA: Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET) here today  licensed the technology of Evaporative Cooled (EC) room structure to state of Mizoram.

Director CIPHET U.S Shivhare signed a memorandum of understanding with Sh C.Lalniliana, Directorate of Agriculture (Research & Education), Government of Mizoram.  The Evaporative cooled room structure is on farm storage solution, which store 5-7 tons of fruits and vegetables. This EC structure requires minimum energy and very low maintainance to operate.

“It maintains a moderate low temperature and sufficiently high relative humidity for  storage of fresh fruits and vegetables,” informed Dr U.S Shivhare, hoping that it would be very useful for small and medium farmers in state of Mizoram.

Sh. C.Lalniliana said that initially they would construct two-three EC structures. “We would encourage other farmers to adopt this easy and economic solution to check post harvest losses,” he added.

The cost of construction of EC structure is Rs 2 to 4 lakh. While potato could be stored in this structure for 55 days and Kinnow could be stored upto 25 days. Head, Agricultural Structures and Environmental Control  Division Dr S.N Jha and Institute Technology Management Unit Incharge Dr K.Narsaiah were also present on the occasion.