Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) is one of the most valuable cash crops in Sri Lanka. The purpose of the study was to develop a chilli growing domestic model by synergizing effects of growth media and fertilizers on the growth and yield performances. This experiment was carried out for chilli variety MICH 3 and the study was laid out using a randomized complete block design with two factors, namely, grow bag packages and fertilizers, with four replicates. The grow bag packages consisted of two levels, i.e., commercial coco peat grow bag and multilayer gunny bag, and fertilizers consisted of two levels, i.e. Albert's fertilizer and compost tea. Both growing medias were characterized for desirable physical and chemical properties.Multilayer gunny bag showed significantly different (p<0.05) growth performance and higher yield compared to the commercial coco peat grow bag. Albert's fertilizer resulted significantly best growth performance compared to compost tea. However, yield performances were similar in both fertilizers. The combination of multilayer gunny bag and compost tea can be recommended for chilli growing domestic model

Post-harvest losses of Carica papaya are considerably high throughout the supply chain due to variety of reasons. Spray drying is one of the potential preservation technologies to address this issue. Therefore, this research was conducted to identify the most acceptable carrier agent for papaya spray drying. The final quality of the product was tested with Maltodextrin and Glucose syrup with three different concentrations and at three different temperatures. Processing temperatures of 60 °C, 80 °C, and 100 °C were employed, with three concentrations (7.4%, 11.5%, and 15.3%) of carrier agents. The results revealed that temperature and carrier agent concentration had no effect on ascorbic acid, solubility, and pH (P>0.05). But the titratable acidity, moisture content and rehydration duration of dried powder differed. With increasing temperature, ascorbic acid and moisture content decreased while the pH of the solution increased with temperature and concentration.

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