HYDERABAD: For the first time in India, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in collaboration with researchers from the Germany-based Fraunhofer Development Centre for X-ray Technology (EZRT) has developed a method to use X-ray radiography to assess the quality of peanuts.
The researchers have found an efficient non-destructive method to quantify commercially important traits in unshelled peanuts. “It enables an accurate and timely evaluation of the peanut pods for important market-related characteristics like kernel weight or shelling percentage,” the press release said.
Groundnut breeders at ICRISAT now spend a fraction of the usual time taken and can scan up to 100 samples in a day to pick the best variety for the season.
Dr Sunita Choudhary, Scientist, Crop Physiology and Modelling, Accelerated Crop Improvement Programme at ICRISAT, said, “The use of X-ray-based technology can revolutionise agriculture research, which has been relying on age-old manual methods or time-consuming laboratory testing methods for determining crop post-harvest traits.”
“This method plays an important role in the value chain system. The farmers can demand a fair price for their produce. By reducing the shelling percentage, it makes the yield more economical. Apart from being useful in research, it also can be used in regular market yards,” she added.
Dr Stefan Gerth, Head of Department, EZRT, said, “ICRISAT crop researchers pointed to the important gaps frequently restraining the Indian farmers from reaping the benefits of their hard labour and researchers from rapid breeding of improved crops. The collaboration helped us to adapt our technology so that the gaps can be closed.” “As a result, the peanut pods evaluation process has become more time and labour efficient. What took three-five skilled workers 30 minutes can now be done by a single technician in two minutes,” he added.
