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Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur

The history of agricultural education in Kerala can be traced back to the year 1896 when a scheme was evolved in the erstwhile Travancore State to train a few young men in scientific agriculture at the Demonstration Farm, Karamana, Thiruvananthapuram, presently, the Cropping Systems Research Centre under Kerala Agricultural University. Agriculture was introduced as an optional subject in the middle school classes in the State in 1922 when an Agricultural Middle School was started at Aluva, Ernakulam District. The popularity and usefulness of this school led to the starting of similar institutions at Kottarakkara and Konni in 1928 and 1931 respectively. Agriculture was later introduced as an optional subject for Intermediate Course in 1953. In 1955, the erstwhile Government of Travancore-Cochin started the Agricultural College and Research Institute at Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram and the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at Mannuthy, Thrissur for imparting higher education in agricultural and veterinary sciences, respectively. These institutions were brought under the direct administrative control of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Animal Husbandry, respectively. With the formation of Kerala State in 1956, these two colleges were affiliated to the University of Kerala. The post-graduate programmes leading to M.Sc. (Ag), M.V.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees were started in 1961, 1962 and 1965 respectively. On the recommendation of the Second National Education Commission (1964-66) headed by Dr. D.S. Kothari, the then Chairman of the University Grants Commission, one Agricultural University in each State was established. The State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) were established in India as an integral part of the National Agricultural Research System to give the much needed impetus to Agriculture Education and Research in the Country. As a result the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) was established on 24th February 1971 by virtue of the Act 33 of 1971 and started functioning on 1st February 1972. The Kerala Agricultural University is the 15th in the series of the SAUs. In accordance with the provisions of KAU Act of 1971, the Agricultural College and Research Institute at Vellayani, and the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, were brought under the Kerala Agricultural University. In addition, twenty one agricultural and animal husbandry research stations were also transferred to the KAU for taking up research and extension programmes on various crops, animals, birds, etc. During 2011, Kerala Agricultural University was trifurcated into Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU), Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS) and Kerala Agricultural University (KAU). Now the University has seven colleges (four Agriculture, one Agricultural Engineering, one Forestry, one Co-operation Banking & Management), six RARSs, seven KVKs, 15 Research Stations and 16 Research and Extension Units under the faculties of Agriculture, Agricultural Engineering and Forestry. In addition, one Academy on Climate Change Adaptation and one Institute of Agricultural Technology offering M.Sc. (Integrated) Climate Change Adaptation and Diploma in Agricultural Sciences respectively are also functioning in Kerala Agricultural University.

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Subject: Agricultural Processing and Food Engineering × Author: Hareesha Shidenur, T × Start date: 2015 × Thesis Type: M.Tech. ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Development and evaluation of a jackfruit peeler cum corer
    (Department of Food and Agricultural Process Engineering , Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 2016) Hareesha Shidenur, T; KAU; Santhi Mary, Mathew
    India is the largest producer of jackfruit followed by Bangladesh and Thailand. Kerala, which lies in the southernmost part of Western Ghats, is well known for its diversity in jackfruit with cultivated area of 90,225 ha and production of 294 million fruits per year. Peeling, coring and bulb separation of jackfruit are time consuming, causes drudgery and very tedium in manual operation. However, a major chunk of the production is wasted due to lack of post-harvest technological interventions, andhence jackfruit isconsidered as underutilized fruit. The present study aims at development and evaluation of a jackfruit peeler cum corer machine. The principle operation of the machine is, as the jackfruit rotates peeling was done helically due to the linear motion of the blade from bottom to top. Similarly cutting-coring operation was performed by screw mechanism which pressed the core removing tool against the fruit and cut into four portion. Finally bulbs were separated manually. Performance evaluation of the machine was conducted in the laboratory to optimize the speed of fruit holder (90, 120 and 150 rpm) and corer pulley (110, 130 and 150 rpm) with three size of jackfruit, by considering the minimum processing time and bulb wastage with higher efficiency. The peeling operation at optimized speed (90 rpm) showed minimum bulb wastage for small (7.85%), medium (7.24%) and large (6.20%) sized fruits with high peeling efficiency of 85.27, 83.51 and 80.64% with a trend of increasing operational time of 38.24, 44.58 and 50.34 secrespectively. Similarly coring operation at optimal speed (130 rpm) showed processing time of 16.98, 22.39 and 24.83 sec and high coring efficiency of 92.85, 90.32 and 82.03% with bulb wastage of 10.337, 7.81 and 6.09% respectively. The average power consumption of optimal operational speeds for medium size jackfruit with load was found as 0.0149±0.0029 kWh/fruit whereas in without load condition was found to be 0.0104±0.0007 kWh/fruit. As per the comparative study, the average time taken for peeling, cutting-coring and bulb separation was more (28.8 min/fruit) during manual operation and in case of mechanical operation it was only 13.3 min/fruit. The maximum throughput of machine was 37.5 kg/h, whereas in manual operation 17.36 kg/h. The cost of the machine has been estimated as Rs. 46950/-. The operational cost of the machine was Rs. 52.97/h whereas, in manual operation, it wasRs. 47.5/h. The benefit-cost ratio of the developed machine was 2.32:1 and in case of manual operation, it was2.66:1.