**3. Post-harvest technology**

After harvest cumin seeds are dried under partial shade in order to keep the moisture up to 9% for storage. Higher moisture content in seeds increases the chances of fungal contamination during storage. The cleaned, dried, and graded seed is packed in the standard size packaging with appropriate labelling. Storage of dried seeds is done in environment friendly plastic film lined gunny bags. While processing cumin, care should be taken to maintain the vitality of the organic ingredient. Selection of processing method should be in such a manner that number and quantity of additives as well as processing aids is kept to a minimum. Essential oil extraction is done by distillation of mature dried seeds, and generally it is done by hydro or steam distillation. For oil extraction, dried seeds can be crushed or steam distilled wholly to yield 2.5 to 4.5% oil content. In International market, there is a good demand for oleoresin obtained from cumin. After processing, various products are produced such as cumin powder, essential oil, cumin oleoresin and fixed oil. Volatile oil after extraction should be stored in well sealed containers.

### **3.1 Crop protection**

Crop protection covers all biotic and abiotic aspects damaging crop. In the cumin growing regions frost is the major concern affecting the production. Cumin is mainly susceptible to frost which occurs from flowering to seed development stage of crop. It can be managed by proper irrigation during frost incidence with smoke or wind breaker.

*Cumin (*Cuminium cyminium *L.): A Seed Spice Crop with Adopted Production Technology… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109054*
