ENHANCING SHELF LIFE OF BANANA USING WAX, CHEMICAL AND BIO-FUNGICIDE: 1.Postharvest studies under ambient and cold storage 2.Effect of culture filtrate ... 3.Trichoderma harzianum on disease incidence

Banana is one of the most popular fruit in the world. Unfortunately 25-30% of produce are deteriorated due to spoilage. Unless the increase in production is supplemented with efforts to minimize postharvest losses and to extend the shelf life, the purpose of obtaining maximum profits will not be served. A simple technology to extend the storage life of fruits is through the use of edible coatings. With this background, the present study was carried out at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India aiming to increase the green life and quality of banana cv. Rasthali (Silk- AAB) by standardizing wax concentration, antagonistic fungi, chemical fungicide and different storage conditions. The findings of the research work have been published in a book form entitled ?Enhancing shelf life of Banana using Wax, Chemical and Bio-fungicide?. The key findings clearly indicated the benefit of Wax (8%) and bio fungicide (Trichoderma harzianum) in increasing the storage life of banana under both ambient and cold storage. This book would be much useful to horticulturists, post harvest scientists, banana exporters, students involving in post harvest research etc