Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi   

India lacks technical manpower in food processing, says IICPT Director

THANJAVUR: Indian Institute of Crop Processing Technology (IICPT) here is starting B.Tech, M. Tech and Ph. D programmes in Food Processing Engineering from this year.

Alagu Sundaram, Director, IICPT, told presspersons here on Friday that 25 students would be admitted to B. Tech programs while ten students each would be admitted to M.Tech and Ph.D programmes.

The courses will start in August. The B. Tech programme will be of four years or eight semesters duration, M.Tech will be of two years or four semesters duration and the Ph.D will be of three years or six semesters durations.

The eligibility criteria for B.Tech programme is a pass in plus two or equivalent examination with major (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics with 50 per cent marks) for M. Tech programme four year bachelors degree with 60 per cent marks in any of the following discipline., ie., food process engineering, agricultural process engineering, post harvest technology, food science and technology, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering and for Ph.D programme master’s degree with 60 per cent marks in any of the above disciplines after completion of a four years bachelor’s degree.

The Institute has also proposed to tie up with reputed institutes in the US, Canada and other advanced countries.

“We propose to offer short to long trainings and research experiences to our students in these advanced laboratories to enable them to learn the latest trends in food processing sectors and to learn from the experiences of those countries in the vital field,” Mr. Sundaram said.

The courses are affiliated to Annamalai University.

Explaining the necessity for starting the courses, the Director said that India is one of the largest producers of foods and is next only to China and America.

India produced 600 million tonnes of food in all per year. In spite of this production, the food supply in the domestic market is inadequate.

Indians don’t get to eat healthy foods, and our export share in international market is less than two per cent.

All these are due to lack of technical manpower in food processing sector, poor ventures in food processing businesses, huge losses, lack of technical knowhow and so on. A meagre one per cent growth rate in food processing industries will see 0.5 million direct and 1.5 million indirect employments.

To fill the gap of manpower, new courses are started, the director explained.

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