Pulwama : A scientist from South Kashmir’s Shopian district, who has extensively worked on cancer research, has used his analytical skills for reducing post harvest wastage in agriculture products, and finding alternatives to chemical food preservatives.
Javid Ahmad Dar is a young biochemist who developed a technique for preserving various agriculture products at room temperature.
Javed who hails from Darbagh village of Shopian said that the technology he developed ensures stability of various agriculture products like apple, collards, garlic, chili, Chicken, Fish and Mushroom at room temperature.
“It is a zero wastage technology,” he said, adding that it helped him to minimise post harvest loss of the agriculture produce.
Javed has set up his own food processing unit at Industrial Growth Centre Lassipora in Pulwama area of Southern Kashmir in 2018 after working at prestigious research institutes in different countries of the world including University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Centre for DNA Finger Printing and Diagnostics, Hyderabad, and King Saud University, Riyadh.
At KHT (Khorasan Hitech ) food processing industry Lassipora, Dar has been using his research skills to find innovative ways for preserving and marketing various agriculture products.
He said it took him many years to find safer alternative to sodium benzoate as food preservative.
“Sodium Benzoate is a safe food preservative as long as it is used in certain low concentration but turns harmful above the advisable quantity because it converts into benzene which is a potential carcinogenic,” he said, adding that while working at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia, he found some natural products which he uses as food preservatives.
“These preservatives are much safer than Sodium Benzoate,” he said, adding that as a researcher who studied cancer biology for many years he don’t like using sodium benzoate as preservative.
“It took me eight years to find the alternatives,” he said.
Javed’s innovative technique has come as handy in reducing post harvest wastage in apple and addressing marketing bottlenecks in poultry sector of Kashmir.
The low quality apple categorised as B and C grade which were thrown away or sold at peanuts are used for making pickles at KHT.
“We are the only company making apple pickle on commercial basis,” he said, adding that they supply apple pickle to different states of India and are in the process of exporting it to Saudi Arabia, Dubai and U.K.
The researcher turned entrepreneur said that they were the first to introduce garlic scape pickle and green chili.
“ Earlier farmers used to throw green chili and garlic scape away,” he said, adding making their pickles has resulted in reducing wastage.
“We consume green chili and garlic scape from the entire Lassipora and adjoining areas,” he said, adding that their company has the distinction to introduce commercialisation of garlic scape.
Similarly, his industry rendered a helping hand to many poultry unit holders.
“For many years I analysed poultry business of Kashmir and found that unit holders usually suffer losses,” Javed Dar said, adding that the poultry bird rearers import chicks and feed from different states of the country.
He said that rearing poultry birds here have more expenses than other areas of the country.
“Poultry unit holders here have to sell their produce at market price despite there being a cost disparity between birds reared here and those imported from other parts.
He said that this often results in loss for local unit holders.
Javed Ahmad , who won two post doctorate fellowships, one at CDFD, Hyderabad and other at University of Pittsburgh for cancer research, created employment opportunity for many youth in Kashmir.
He said that they introduced 14 different apple products at three tourist places of Kashmir including Gulmarg, Phalgam and Nishat.
“Along two routes leading to Phalgam from Anantnag these 14 apple products have been kept available at more than 100 juice points operated by highly educated youth,” he said, adding that KHT gives them good profit margin.
