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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: Post Harvest Technology × Author: Lekshmi, S G × End date: 2019 × Start date: 2019 × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Feasibility of puza zero energy cool chamber as low cost on-farm storage structure under Kerala condition
    (Department of post harvest technology, college of agriculture, Vellayani, 2019) Lekshmi, S G; KAU; Mini, C
    The experiment entitled “Feasibility of Pusa Zero Energy Cool Chamber as low cost on-farm storage structure under Kerala condition” was undertaken at Department of Post Harvest Technology from 2017-2019 with the objective to evaluate the feasibility of Pusa Zero Energy Cool Chamber as a low cost on-farm storage structure for horticultural perishables during different seasons under humid tropical climate of Kerala. Six different fruits and vegetables, viz., papaya, snake gourd, cucumber, bitter gourd, amaranth and cowpea were stored in perforated plastic crates under Pusa zero energy cool chambers (PZECC) each of 165cm length, 115 cm breadth and 75 cm height during three seasons viz., June - September, October - February and March – May by maintaining 85-95% relative humidity inside the chamber with same set of commodities kept under ambient storage conditions as control. The study was conducted as six separate experiments for different commodities and possibility of storage of each commodity during different seasons was assessed based on physical, physiological, chemical and sensory quality parameters. Papaya, snake gourd and bitter gourd stored in PZECC during March- May and October- February had high shelf life, marketability and colour, where as cucumber had high shelf life and marketability when stored in PZECC only during March - May. Though the treatment combinations had no significant effect, amaranth and cowpea kept inside the PZECC had high shelf life, marketability and colour with low physiological loss in weight. The enhanced shelf life received for papaya fruits kept in ZECC was only 1.55 and 1.66 days during Oct- Feb and March- May respectively compared to their corresponding ambient storage, where as it was 0.89 and 0.66 days for bitter gourd and 0.78 and 1.55 days for cucumber. Amaranth had two days additional shelf life when kept under PZECC. Papaya, bitter gourd, cucumber and snake gourd had least shelf life when stored in PZECC during June- September. Storage under the chamber during June – September had resulted in poor colour development in bitter gourd and snake gourd, poor texture in snake gourd and lowest marketability in cucumber. All the sensory parameters were affected by the treatments in cucumber, amaranth, and cowpea. In other commodities, majority of the sensory parameters were not influenced by season and storage conditions Microbial load of papaya and snake gourd, cowpea, amaranth were not affected by the treatments; But bacterial load in bitter gourd and fungal load in cucumber were high when stored under PZECC during June – September. Carotene content in snake gourd and cowpea, vitamin C of bitter gourd, cucumber and cowpea and oxalate content in amaranth were not influenced by the treatments indicating that majority of the nutritional parameters were unaffected by storage conditions. PZECC is a low cost on-farm storage structure which could be constructed at a cost of Rs.5000/- per unit. But the structure helped only in marginal enhancement in shelf life of horticultural perishables that too only during March- May and October- February and was not at all suitable during the rainy season (June-September). The result of the present study showed that the PZECC, designed for the Rural North India as such cannot be recommended as an efficient on farm storage structure for Kerala. It has to be suitably modified for tropical humid climate and proper post harvest management practices are to be adopted before storing a commodity in the storage structure, so that it would be a better option for temporary storage of commodities awaiting marketing and short term maintenance of quality horticultural perishables, reducing the wastage of perishable commodities.