1 Agricultural Mechanization Division, Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Nabi Bagh, Berasia Road, Bhopal (M.P.).
2 Agro Processing Division, Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Nabi Bagh, Berasia Road, Bhopal (M.P.). (sukdev@ciae.mp.nic.in)
3 NATP-TOE on AMDD, Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Nabi Bagh, Berasia Road, Bhopal (M.P.).
A techno-economic survey was conducted in, South Gujarat by contacting farmers, traders and cooperative marketing societies to study the status of grading, packaging and marketing of sapota fruits. The study revealed that small farmers grade sapota manually into 2 to 3 sizes before marketing. The farmers cooperative marketing societies do the grading and packaging operations with help of tailor made plants. The prices of fruits are paid to the growers on the basis of fruit count per 10 kg. Traders also grade the fruits manually and supply them to meet the requirement of the cities at short distances. While the packaging of fruits is done in ventilated corrugated fiberboard boxes by cooperative societies and traders, gunny bags are used by the farmers for packaging.
