Design and Development of Wild Apricot Pit Grader : An approach for on-farm solution of Post Harvest processing of wild apricot with utilizing only available resources

Wild Apricot (Prunus armeniaca.L is an important temperate fruit and perishable in nature. Each and every part of apricot is either consumable or usable as ingredients in different health and food products. Wild Apricot harvesting, cracking and oil extraction are still carried out manually which results in increased cost, processing time and also tedious and time consuming process. The lack of proper pit grading equipment is one of the major problem for further development in mechanized process after harvesting. The farming and farmers cultivated wild apricot is mainly belongs to mountainous area, so there has been great demand for developing wild apricot pit grader which provide the on-farm grading, easy for transport from field to field and can be operated with proper energy sources at remote places.A pedal operated wild apricot pit grader working on the principle of "grading of pit according to the variation in individual pit thickness" with highest grading efficiency gives the appropriate solution for the post harvest process line of wild apricot pit.