In a first for India, three innovative machines have been successfully developed to streamline the seed separation process from Garcinia fruits, particularly cashew apples.

Led by the Cashew Research Directorate in Puttur, these newly designed machines—fully automatic, semi-automatic, and pedal-powered—aim to reduce the manual labour traditionally involved in cashew seed extraction. Farmers are expected to benefit from their rollout shortly.

Removing seeds by hand from cashew fruit is usually time-consuming and physically demanding. To tackle this, the Puttur-based directorate collaborated with the Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering’s Regional Research Centre in Coimbatore. Dr Manjunath from Puttur spearheaded the initiative, working alongside Dr Ravindra Nayak, Dr Balasubramanian, and engineering division director Dr Dinkar Adiga.

“These machines significantly cut down on labour costs, processing time, and human effort,” said Dr Manjunath. “We’re also working on compact designs tailored for smallholders,” he added.

Dr Dinkar Adiga highlighted the vast scope for expanding cashew cultivation in India. “We’re not just developing crop varieties but are also integrating modern tools to make farming more efficient,” he said.

Constructed entirely from stainless steel, the automatic machine efficiently separates juice, pulp, and seeds. It processes up to 300 kg of fruit per hour, consumes 0.75 litres of petrol hourly, and can also run on electricity. Priced at ₹1.95 lakh, it will be sold by Fission Agritech Pvt Ltd in Ramanagara.

The semi-automatic model, costing ₹35,000, runs on electricity or battery and handles 35 kg of fruit per hour. The pedal-powered version, priced at ₹15,000, can process 15 kg per hour using a simple blade-press mechanism.

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