Sayeed for US technology to enhance shelf life of fruits

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today ordered trial of a new, patented technology from the US which doubles fruit shelf life in non-controlled room temperature.
To meet the huge challenge of maintaining quality of fruit
Supplies in highly-competitive global markets, he directed Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences, Kashmir (SKUAST-K) to test the low-cost technology, which is being reportedly used for maintaining quality of 80 per cent of US apples.
"SKUAST will carry out trial experiments after working out modalities to see if our fruit growers can use this new technological intervention," he said.
The Chief Minister gave these directions in a high-level meeting convened to discuss 1-MCP, an exposure-based technology patented and widely used in the United States.

Minister for Horticulture A R Veeri, Minister for Agriculture Ghulam Nabi Lone, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister B B Vyas were among the top officials present in the meeting.
Prof Nazir Mir, a Kashmir-born scientist working in Rutgers University, US, who has done pioneering research in 1-MCP, also attended the meeting.
Referring to the difficulties faced by fruit growers, Mufti Sayeed said the trial test by SKUAST will provide an insight into how useful 1-MCP will be in prolonging the shelf life of fruit, in particular apple.