Empowerment of Rural Tribal Women through Value Addition of Carambola

Carambola is one of the highly perishable underutilized fruit wildly available in the hillocks of Chandel district which goes wasted every season. In order to reduce the post-harvest losses, Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Chandel took initiative to convert the underutilized carambola in to value added products. For this study, primary and secondary information were collected in order to assess the indigenous knowledge for the preparation and consumption of different carambola products. Five value added products namely, carambola squash, ready to drink juice, jam, candy and salted preserves were standardized. Rural tribal women were empowered through training and demonstrations on the preparation of value added carambola products. Lamjing Shelf Help Group (SHG) was formed by a group of women and started an enterprise on processing and value addition of carambola. The standardized products were organoleptically tested for acceptability before marketing. Value added products were sold at the local melas and markets enabling SHG members to generate additional income and making them financially empowered.