Department of Horticulture (DoH) Dimapur organised training on low preservation of fruits and vegetables here on Tuesday at SHN, Dimapur.
Demonstration on the processing method was carried out by deputy director horticulture and in-charge marketing Meyasashi. The processing product was mainly focused on pineapple fruit.
Meyasashi pointed out that Dimapur was declared as pineapple district by government of India and government of Nagaland. He said that the area production would also be made in a large scale since pineapple was high in demand.
He informed that pineapple fruit was certified organic and had a Unique Selling Proposition or Unique Selling Price (USP) which other state or district doesn’t have.
In this regard, Meyasashi encouraged the people to focus on area expansion, value addition and marketing.
He demonstrated on how to make jam, squash, jelly, Ready to Serve (RTS) and sweets from the fruit.
Meyasashi said that under mission for integrated development of horticulture scheme sponsored by the government of India, 160 appliances were bought out of which 14 electrical appliances were to be distributed to each district.
He said that the technology involved were simple to utilise, operated in a domestic line, had power consumption of two power element 500 watts each which could be used according to the product. He further encouraged the beneficiaries to produce high quality product so that it would be made available within and beyond the state.
Meanwhile, free electrical appliances to process the fruits and vegetables were handed over to SHGs beneficiaries under low-cost preservation unit. Altogether, 14 beneficiaries were trained on the prospects in food processing.