The pomegranate-processing technologies as well as novel aril-extracting equipment developed by CIPHET has received a global attention. In the “World pomegranate fair” held from November 19 to 20 in Kabul, the CIPHET delegation comprising the Director, Dr R. T. Patil and Dr AK Thakur, senior scientist, were invited by USAID/ASAP programme in Kabul. The simple but easy-to-operate tool and high capacity equipment developed by CIPHET for removing arils (juicy seeds) was presented at the conference and live demonstration of hand tool was shown, which was appreciated by all international participants. The Kandahar pomegranate is famous all over the world and is being grown in Afghanistan since the time immemorial. The removal of arils without cutting requires lots of strength to break open the fruit which can be possible by very strong Afghan pathan only. The alternative of cutting the fruit damages the arils and hence not appreciated. But now with the simple tool developed by CIPHET, any one can do it. There was a long-felt need to have a tool for easy removal of pomegranate arils which has now been fulfilled by innovative idea in the form of this tool by CIPHET scientists. In Afghanistan two types of pomegranate are produced: one is with seeds and another one is seed less (bedana) The fruit is as big as 700-800 gm in weight.The regular pomegranate has thick and juicy peel and thus is easy to break with force, but the bedana has a thin dried peel and hence difficult to break and even to cut. However, with the CIPHET-developed hand-tool it was very easy to remove the arils from such pomegranates and that made the farmers of Afghanistan, international scientists and USAID officials, who sponsored the trip of CIPHET scientists, very happy. The novel design of CIPHET hand tool was praised and appreciated by all.
