On- Farm Storage of Lemons And Tomatoes by Low Cost Zero Energy Cool Chamber

Abstract

On farm, low cost zero energy cool chamber with small capacity was constructed at the Faculty of Agriculture of the Eastern University, Sri Lanka by using locally available materials The doubled wailed chamber constructed of bricks, sand and skaw is kept soaked with water. The evaporative cooling effect reduced ihe inside temperature by as much as 13-150 C and kept "he relative humidity above 90% during peak hot season lt was {ound that this chamber could a-Lso maintain temperature at 8 12oC lower than the ambient temperature with relative hum idity of around 90% in normal days Freshly harvested lemon and tomato fruits were used for evaluating their storage performance in this chamber The cool chamber was found to increase the shelf life of lemons and tomatoes and reduced the physiological loss in weight appreciably as compared to loom tempelherr Higher firmness due to delay in opening and delay in increase of total soluble solids, increasing the total sugars, decrease in acidity and Less rotting of fruit was observed leading io recovery of higher percent marketable fruits Lemon and tomato fruits could be stored in cool chamber up lo 16 and 12 days as against 7 and 4 days at room temperature(32oC) respectively