Evaporatively cooled storage structure, nowadays, is increasingly being used for on-farm storage of fruits and vegetables. Various design and concepts for constructing this structure are being applied. A structure using pad as cooling medium was designed and constructed for storage of fruits and vegetables. Physical properties of commonly used cooling pads, such as safeda, partal and root pads were studied and rate of water evaporation from their surfaces at different environmental conditions were evaluated for this structure in this investigation. The average bulk density of safeda, partal and root pads varied from 38–46 kg/m3, 35–40 kg/m3 and 111–313 kg/m3 respectively; and decreased with the increase in their thickness. The average true densities of partai, safeda and root pads were found to be 1000, 750 and 590 kg/m3, respectively and among the three cooling pads, partal had maximum porosity and root pad the minimum. The surface evaporation of water from the cooling pads increased with increase in ambient temperature and decrease in the relative humidity irrespective of pad materials and thickness. The highest surface evaporation of 14.87g of water per minute was found to be from the partal cooling pad of 7 mm thickness.
