Agricultural Process Engineering

GENERAL

The Department of Agricultural Processing was formed during the year 1974 as one of the departments of the College of Agricultural Engineering and renamed as Department of Food & Agricultural Process Engineering in 2004. The functioning of this department started from the merger of the then Crop Dryer Scheme of Department of Agriculture, Government of Tamil Nadu. This department supports the Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute in its activities viz., teaching, research and extension in the discipline of Food and Agricultural Processing.

Mandate

• Manpower development in the field of Food and Agricultural Process Engineering under the broad based agricultural education scenario.
• To conduct basic and applied research towards the reduction of post harvest losses, both in durable and perishable crops.
• Development of technology for value addition and preservation of farm produces during glut, the utilization of the farm wastes and residues.
• Development of gadgets and improved equipment to reduce drudgery to the farm workers and improve the efficiency of the traditional gadgets.
• Transfer of technology on post harvest processes and gadgets by imparting training to the farmers, entrepreneurs, etc.,

Objectives

• To evaluate post harvest losses in selected districts through survey
• To estimate storage losses in selected FCI Godowns.
• To develop post harvest processing machinery for various agro-climatic regions of Tamil Nadu for minimization of quantitative and qualitative losses of agriculture produce.
• To develop improved machinery/technologies for value addition of agricultural produce to improve livelihood of farming community.
• To develop processes and equipments for utilization of by-products from farm and agro- industries.