The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : New technology to sort defective mangoes unveiled

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New technology to sort defective mangoes unveiled

Ajai Sreevatsan

It employs X-ray imaging and is similar to airport security scan systems

UNDER THE SCANNER: Mangoes being tested for quality control using a new technology developed by the Central Electronics and Engineering Research Institute in Chennai on Thursday.— Photo: V.Ganesan

CHENNAI: An innovative technology which can be used by exporters for non-destructive testing to sort mangoes was unveiled by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) here on Thursday at a two day awareness workshop being conducted by the Central Electronics and Engineering Research Institute (CEERI), an arm of the CSIR.

It employs soft X-ray imaging and is pretty similar to airport security scan systems. Export quality Alphonso mangoes are afflicted with two types of physiological conditions called spongy tissue and seed weevil. Till now, certain countries had banned Indian mangoes because of this. “The X-ray imaging technology helps segregate the mangoes with deformities by processing the internal density of the fruit and thus will provide a fillip to the export industry,” said R. Govindaraj, the Project head, CEERI.

India is the largest producer of mangoes in the world. The current Indian export market is 50,000 tonnes a year and the estimated worth is Rs.125 crore. “America and Japan had banned imports of Indian mangoes citing quality control. The ban has recently been lifted. There is huge potential for expanding the export market. The technology can be used even in the local market and will benefit the consumers a lot,” said Vijay Mehta, Vice-Chancellor of Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth.

The awareness workshop is part of a CSIR initiative to reach out to industry representatives and to use its research to develop real world applications thus benefiting society.

People from diverse fields such as horticulture, electronics and instrumentation, and marketing experts came together on one platform during the workshop.

“Till about 1990, Indian research institutions existed in isolation and there used to be no end-user participation. In foreign countries, industries have their own R&D wing and hence can scale up technology and increase productivity. But in India that is not the case. So central research institutions have to find a way to showcase their work and interact with industry,” said Chandra Shekhar, Director of CEERI.Industry representatives were encouraged to approach CSIR with their problems during the workshop.

A collaborative model where industry shares a part of the research cost has been evolved. “Industry should also take the cue. Tomorrow this opportunity might go to someone else,” said Nagesh Iyer, Co-ordinating Director of CSIR.

Each mango sorting unit costs around Rs. 30 lakh and the estimated cost of processing each mango is 12 paise. But efforts are being made to bring the per unit cost to below 5 paise.

“The business model is based on the fact that increased processing cost would be offset by access to a wider market and better pricing because of adherence to quality,” said Dr. Chandra Shekhar.

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