Half of story of agriculture is about postharvest. In order to achieve sustainable food security and safety, the produced food products need to be handled in a systematic and appropriate manner, during their journey from field to fork. Research activity in post harvest and food technology is mainly centered on primary, secondary and tertiary processing operations. Activities conducted during harvest, handing, transportation, storage, utilization of by-products and value addition by conversion of agric based products into suitable form, to be destined to national and international markets are important unit operations in post harvest agriculture.
In the past two and a half decades our main areas of activities encircles the care and practices for durable products like cereals, pulses, oilseeds, dried fruits and nuts and also perishable products like fruits and vegetables. Development of indigenous methods and technologies for preservation of quality and quantity and introduction of new food based products, evaluation of quality and nutritive value and determination of Compositional, optical and physical quality changes with respect to storage and handling for many commodities has been carried out. Additional research work is under way to examine the post harvest quality aspects of pistachios, dates and oranges, potato, onion and garlic within the framework of post-harvest technology of horticultural products for development of appropriate handling, storage and industrial processing techniques. The effect of modified atmospheres on extension of shelf life and disinfestations of stored products pests and post-harvest heat and cold treatments for curing cold-stored potatoes has also been examined. The evaluation of post-harvest storage performance and decay control of table grape varieties and work on evaluating physical methods for post-harvest decay control and quality preservation of citrus has also been concluded.
