Mysuru :
City-based Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL) has come to the rescue of tomato growers who often face rock-bottom price for the produce.
Under its rural development programme, DFRL with the help of Spoorthy Janaabhivruddi Samsthe, an NGO, conducted a one-day awareness programme for farmers at Ahalya village on Dec. 11 (Sunday) on tomato processing and various products made out of tomatoes developed by the laboratory.
Scientists and technical staff of DFRL demonstrated various technologies which have been developed for tomato utilisation to reduce the post harvest losses. The technologies have been developed with special focus on progressive farmers, Self Help Groups (SHGs) and rural enterprises. All these technologies are farm-amenable and have been developed keeping in view the traditional Indian palate. The products are good for consumption from 6 months to 9 months when stored at ideal temperature. The products, in ready-to-serve (RTS) or ready-to-prepare (RTP) form requires less preparation before being serving.
A number of tomato-based value-added products, namely tomato RTS beverage, tomato sambar paste, tomato rasam paste, tomato curry paste, tomato sauce, tomato pulp, green tomato chutney, red tomato chutney, tomato powder and intermediate moisture tomato slices were displayed to the farmers.
DFRL is ready to share the technology with the NGOs which plan to help the farmers to set up the tomato processing units as it believes that such units would help in value realisation for the farmers. The project will also be funded by NABARD.
Earlier, the workshop was inaugurated by DFRL Director Dr. Rakesha Kumar Sharma. Janaabhivruddi Samsthe CEO Deepak, NABARD AGM Arvamudhan, Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI), Bengaluru, Chairman Yashasvi Naag, DFRL Scientists Dr. N. Gopalan, Dr. O.P. Chauhan, Tanushree, C. Nanjappa, DFRL PRO Dr. Mallesha, Members of Ahalya Village Panchayat and others were present.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / December 14th, 2016