Technology developed by the Central Agricultural University of Imphal is making washing large quantities of gingers, turmeric and other crops easy. While washing large quantities of gingers or turmeric traditionally takes hours and causes inconveniences, CAU’s washer hardly takes an hour to do the job.
Washing 25 kilograms of ginger or turmeric takes only about 10 minutes, said Dean of College of Food Technology, CAU, Imphal, Dr Ngangkham Joykumar. This simple and easy to use machine was developed by the Department of Agriculture Engineering, College of Agriculture, CAU, Imphal in 2017. A machine costs about Rs 22,000 (€245).
It has the capacity of washing 25 kilograms of gingers or other crops at a time in about 10 minutes, he said. The machine is about 1 metre in height and 5 metres in width and has two drums, one fitted inside the other. While the outer drum is made of plastic to hold water (capacity 20 litres), the drum inside is made of steel to hold the crops like gingers, turmeric or potatoes.
According to e-pao.net¸ the steel drum has a rough surface with many holes, to facilitate water to enter inside and clean the crops. The machine is manually operated and has a handle to rotate the drums inside to clean the crops.