MoU signed on post harvest technology research

BANGALORE:  Indian Institute of Crop Processing Technology (IICPT), Thanjavur and University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Bangalore on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), to facilitate collaborative research & development and education on post harvest technology and value addition processing.In addition to these objectives, the university will provide training course for rural youth and build human resource capacities for the food processing industry.“This tieup will help in coordination of joint research, lectures, training and development of mutually beneficial academic programmes,” said Dr K Narayana Gowda, vice-chancellor, UAS, Bangalore. This MoU was signed in the light of emerging global challenges in meeting the demand of higher technologies for processing, preservation and value addition to crops.Speaking on the occasion, Dr K Alagusundaram, Director of IICPT said, “Though we have sufficient productions, our food availability is far too below than expected. We are now envisaging a second green revolution to meet the growing food demands. If we improve the post harvest management of crops, the availability of food for domestic consumption and for international markets will improve,” he added.Inaugurating a two-day national conference on ‘Appropriate Technologies for Indian Food Processing Industries’ jointly organised by IICPT and UAS, Gowda said that the employment generation in food processing is much higher compared to other sectors.“Food processing industries would provide about 3.5 lakh jobs per `1,000 crore of investment, which is otherwise only 48,000 in textile and 25,000 in paper industry. Further, there is also a four-fold employment generation in the ancillary industry,” he added.Director of research of UAS Bangalore Dr H Shivanna, retired professor in post harvest technology at UAS Bangalore Dr B Ranganna and associate professor at IICPT Thanjavur Dr A Surabhi were present.