Consumers' demand is increasing for safe foods without impairing the phytochemical and sensory quality. In turn, it has increased research interest in the exploration of innovative food processing technologies. Cold plasma technology is getting popularity now days owing to its high efficacy in decontamination of microbes in fruit and fruit-based products. As a onthermal approach, plasma processing maintains the quality of fruits and minimizes the thermal effects on nutritional properties. Cold plasma is also exploited for inactivating enzymes and degrading pesticides as both are directly related with quality loss and presently are most important concerns in fresh produce industry. The present review covers the influence of cold plasma technology on reducing microbial risks and enhancing the quality attributes in fruits.

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Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, one of the leading producers of temperate fruits in India, is in the process of adopting high-density apple cultivation. Establishment of high-density apple orchard involves a very high cost which gets compensated by higher productivity during its productive life. Considering the profitability of cultivating high-density apple a need was felt to examine its quality and yield potential that could guide the Government to formulate a roadmap for its dissemination in its domain area. High-density apple (variety-Super Chief Sandidge) was recently introduced from Italy. It is reported to be very productive and quality wise, retains a high score of consumer acceptability, accordingly efforts are being made to extend its adoption in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. To formulate a policy for its adoption, ex-ante evaluation was carried out by employing economic surplus model on the experimental data collected from the technical expert group of scientists involved in its cultivation, assessment, evaluation and dissemination. The results reveal that productivity of apple has increased by 53.6 mt/ha and labor employment has increased by 676 man days/ha due to the adoption of high-density apple technology. The results further revealed that with an expected expansion of high-density apple orchards over 30% of the target area NPV, IRR and BC ratio would amount to 16.43 Billion US $, 62% and 98.60.

To arrive at good land governance imperatives, we study land degradation in Jammu & Kashmir. The panel regression estimates indicate that rural literacy and direct institutional credit to farmers reduce land degradation in the state and rural population density and urban population growth increase it. Public investment in agricultural production is critical for land development, irrigation, and forestry, but it has declined recently in absolute and proportionate terms, and poor execution of acts and reforms have brought about deficits in land governance. The study suggests options for making the state's land governance policy efficient and developing its resources.

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