2017 ASHS Annual Conference

The underserved community still lags behind in terms of capitalizing on economic opportunities in Delaware due to lack of access to technology, knowledge, and resources. Among many variables, they are less prepared regarding food safety during post-harvest conditions. They want to grow fresh fruits and vegetables and market to get higher prices, but they cannot fetch what they expect due to the deteriorating condition of food stuff by the time they get to the market. Therefore, the College of Agriculture and Related Sciences (CARS) at Delaware State University (DSU) provide educational opportunities to these audiences to minimize post-harvest loss by using tools like the refrigerated trailer “Cool It Now.” Dr. Lekha Paudel and team of DSU-CARS were able to get financial support to build DSU’s refrigerated trailer unit from a Specialty Crop Block Grant, and a Capacity Building Grant offered competitively to 1890 Land-Grant institutions through USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture in 2014. A mobile cooler allows farmers to travel farther to take produce to farmers markets, provides immediate preservation for harvest in the field, and convenience for vending at events. Delaware State University’s “Cool It Now” unit is equipped with a generator for field use or can be plugged in. Dr. Paudel is continuously working to educate farmers about this new method of keeping produce safe during marketing, and as a result, many farmers are planning to build the trailer for their needs.