Conference on bio-processing begins at CFTRI

Mysuru:  “Owing to negligence showed in the field of food processing in India, about 25 percent of food products are getting wasted,” opined Dr. Gautam R. Desiraju, Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit (SSCU), Indian Institute of Science  (IISc), Bengaluru.

He was speaking as the chief guest during the inauguration of the three-day 7th Bio-processing India Conference organised by Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) at its premises here yesterday.

Desiraju observed that water in excess was being used for agriculture and a lot of it was being wasted in irrigation. He pointed out that a good awareness and maintenance is necessary in all sectors to bring down losses. He contended that the waste generated in food production should be technically monitored. 

He sought usefulness to people from any research by creating awareness among farmers who are deprived of good education. Citing an example, he pointed out that pineapple should be sent to the Processing Plant within three days of harvesting and added that farmers in Meghalaya unaware of that fact suffer losses.

Dr. Shekhar C. Mande, Director-General, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), addressing the media, said that Precision Farming is being introduced in the State which is a modern farming technique that helps farmers on supplying nutrients, water, seed and other agricultural inputs using modern techniques. He added that along with precision farming, through technical methods even the problem of malnutrition can be addressed.

Continuing, Dr. Mande said that CSIR has come out with many innovative schemes like extracting potash from spent wash, cultivation of high value crops like menthol mint and lavender through Aroma Mission and advanced floriculture.

He added that National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), a wing of CSIR, is developing a 19-sector indigenous light transport aircraft and envisages to come out with a 70-sector aircraft in the future.

The Conference Session was attended by IISc Deputy Director Dr. Jayant M. Modak, CFTRI Director Dr. KSMS Raghavendra Rao, Dr. Anurag S. Rathore of Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi and others.

A commemorative volume was released on the occasion.