Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.) is a popular tropical large fruit of the Moraceae family. The ripe bulbs are sweet delicious to eat besides a variety of preparations. The seeds are discarded as waste. The study was conducted with different heat processing methods like blanching (BL), roasting (RO) and pressure-cooking (PC) to know the flour yield on dry-milling, nutritional composition and its acceptable level. On milling maximum flour recovery of 93.30% (PC), 98.76% (RO) and 96% (BL) were observed. Among the minerals estimated (ICPMS) the potassium content of 9245.90 mg/kg, 7382.24mg/kg, 8232.31mg/kg in BL, RO and PC seed flours were reported. Magnesium content of 942.84 mg/kg, 775.32 mg/kg and 886.14mg/kg observed in BL, RO and PC flours, the highest sodium content of 243.69 mg/kg in PC, followed by 193.23 mg/kg and 46.44 mg/kg in RO and BL samples. Calcium content of 82.01 mg/kg, 60.48 mg/kg, 83.33 mg/kg was observed in BL, RO, PC flour samples were noticed. Iron (43.36 mg/100g BL, 20.10 mg/kg RO, 16.20 mg/kg PC), Aluminium (31.36 mg/kg BL, 16.69 mg/kg RO, 5.50 PC). Zinc (12.46 mg/kg BL, 10.18 mg/kg RO, 16.48 mg/kg PC), Manganese (4.80 mg/kg BL, 2.61 mg/kg RO, 3.81 mg/kg PC), Boron (6.25 mg/kg BL, 2.29 mg/kg RO, 3.46 mg/kg PC), Barium (2.37 mg/kg BL, 1.12 mg/kg RO, 1.88 mg/kg PC), Copper (4.86 mg/kg BL, 2.78mg/kg RO, 3.52mg/kg PC) etc., other elements in traces. The findings suggest that a maximum of 50% PC Jack seed flour was found accepted in the production of functional breadsticks having protein 9.78g/100g, carbohydrates 75.55g/100g and energy 405 K.cal/100g or as a functional food ingredient in different food products.

Developments in vacuum storage technology present an opportunity to achieve significant improvements on protection, preservation and storage of agricultural commodities for residential and commercial use. Sub-baric storage is a environmental friendly, non-residue organic technology which provides chemical-free and insect contamination-free products. Due to creation of vacuum, there is a change in the environment inside the storage structure. This study therefore contributes an important knowledge and method in the development, fabrication and application of a sub baric storage bin (SBSB) as a best alternative to the commonly used traditional and modern storage structure. In its embodiment, the work focuses on the design and fabrication of the sub-baric storage bin to provide efficient storage of food grains by preventing the use of pesticides and insecticides and to reduce material loss during storage, a sub-baric storage bin of 500 kg capacity was designed and developed. The developed storage bin consists of storage chamber (500 kg), Vacuum pump, suction blower, grain inlet with pipe for loading, grain outlet for unloading, vacuum gauge, thermocouple, control panel, agitator, air filter, two inlet valves for gas infusion, vacuum release valve and SS mobile skid. The designed sub-baric storage bin is cylindrical in geometry with conical shape at bottom side and flat circular plate on top side and the storage bin has capacity of 500 kg to store food grains with hopper angle of 60°. The storage bin was designed in such a way that, it has provision for both bulk and bag storage and to work from 0-650 mm Hg vacuum. The developed SBSB was subjected to hydraulic pressure test and vacuum drop test to ensure a safe operation. It was observed that there was no implosion (compression) or explosion confirming to the fact that the design was adequate and also safe to operate. Also, there were no signs of bulging, buckling or any deformations observed in any of the components or the pipe lines, connections, fixtures or fasteners. Hence, it was concluded that the designed equipment could be operated safely at 650 mm Hg vacuum pressure satisfying all the applicable safety assurances and standards relevant to the industry.

Background: Petha is a translucent soft candy historically and geographically originated from Agra that is usually rectangular or cylindrical made from the ash gourd. With growing demand and innovation, more varieties of the original preparation are available in the market. Watermelon is most relished fruit and people just eat reddish pulpy portion and discard the rind. But watermelon rind is by product with good amounts of protein, fat, carbohydrates, crude fiber and ash. Methods: The present study was carried out to develop petha from watermelon rind by osmotic dehydration with varied concentrations of Sugar viz., 50° Brix(T1), 60° Brix(T2) and 70° Brix(T3) and the sensory evaluation was carried out from initial to 45 days of storage at both room as well as refrigerated temperature and further evaluated microbial load, texture analysis and consumer acceptability of petha. Result: Among the three variations T2 was more acceptable than T1 and T3 after 45 days of sensory evaluation. The nutrient composition for the best accepted watermelon rind petha indicated low fat with adequate amount of crude fibre (0.6 g), carbohydrate (52.49 g), calcium (18.68 mg) and phosphorous (9.28 mg). Hence, it can be concluded that watermelon rinds can be better option for byproduct utilization for development of petha with good nutritional profile that is economical too.

Paddy (rice) is considered as the most important staple food-cereal crop in south-east Asian countries. It is the majorly consumed food in India. Transplanting of paddy is a highly labor-intensive operation and is still done manually. It takes around 182 to 250-man hours a day to manually transplant rice. Also, many a time due to shortage of labour, transplanting is delayed which causes a progressive decrease in yield. The scarcity of labour during the peak season of transplanting creates a problem to complete the transplanting operation in time. Manually operated paddy transplanter can be useful for small and marginal landholdings. Here we intended to develop equipment that should be of low cost, fabricated locally, versatile in utility, reducing drudgery by making transplanting possible without bending and useful for small farmers. The developed two row rice transplanter prototype can transplant 20 to 25-day old seedlings up to 5 cm depth with adjustable row spacing of about 15-20 cm. It requires two operators, one for filling the tray while walking behind and another for pulling the transplanter while walking in front of the machine. The actual filed capacity of 0.2 ha per day (eight hour working day) was achieved with the machine by considering a 5%- and 3%- time loss due to turning and filling tray respectively.